A Federal High Court presided over by Justice Hassan of the Court 10 Ikoyi, Lagos yesterday slammed a fine of N40, 000 against Tincan Island Container Terminal( TICT) in a case between Glory Shipping Agency Ltd. and 4 others vs Tincan Island Container Terminal for deliberately delaying the matter.
It will be recalled that the Court had on the 23rd of January, 2017 awarded a cost of N20, 000 against TICT for not putting appearance in the court to move the application it filed in the matter and adjourned the matter to yesterday.
When the matter came up for mention yesterday, the Counsel to the Plaintiffs, Mr. Kenneth Chiso Joshua Esq., argued and demanded a cost of N100, 000 against TICT for delayed appearance on a matter they initiated against TICT since 30th August 2016.
He reminded the court that the case was a maritime case of which time was of essence.
In his line of argument, Counsel to the Defendant, Mr. Donald Ibebuike Esq. contested and opposed the argument of the Plaintiffs’ counsel on the ground that it was only if there was a ship arrest that a counsel could claim that time was of essence in a maritime case.
Agreeing with the position of the Counsel to the Plaintiffs, the presiding Judge, Justice Hassan was not move by the Counsel to the Defendant’s argument saying that he was “speaking grammar”.
The court therefore used his discretion to award a cost of N40,000 against TICT as against N100, 000 sought for by the Counsel to the plaintiff and adjourned the matter to March 22nd for mention.
Glory Shipping Agency and 4 others had earlier taken TICT to court over what they called unfair and wrongful charge of demurrage on storage over a fault that was totally TICT’s having delayed transfer of their consignments from TICT to Bollore off dock terminal in Lagos.
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