Supreme court reverses its ruling, readmits GTBank’s appeal against Innoson

        


The Supreme Court has reversed its earlier ruling dismissing an appeal by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) against a 2.4 billion judgement in favour of Innoson Motors Nigeria Limited.

A five-member panel led by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola held that the apex court erred in its February 27, 2019 ruling in suit no SC/694/2014.

Ruling in favour of GTB, the apex court held that “The order dismissing the appeal was therefore made in error. It ought not to have been made if all materials were disclosed. The application is, therefore, meritorious and hereby succeeds.”
What happened in court

GTB had filed an application before the apex court seeking re-listing of the said appeal on the grounds that the matter was dismissed wrongly.

Reading the judgement on Friday, Justice Abdu Aboki, said the court was misled by its registry, he said that if the panel that heard the appeal on February 27, 2019 was informed of GTB’s brief of arguments, it would not have ruled dismissing the appeal on the grounds that it lacked diligent prosecution.

“I am convinced that at the material time that the appellant’s appeal was inadvertently dismissed by this court, there was in place, a valid and subsisting brief of argument filed by the applicant.

“It is obvious from the material before us that there were errors committed by the Registry of this court, having failed to bring to the notice of the panel of Justices that sat in chambers on the 27th February 2019 that the appellant had indeed filed its brief of argument,” the judge stated.

Credit: Nairametrics