By Jerry Uwah
Lagos
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Monday struck out the application by Ecobank Nigeria Plc seeking to wind-up Honeywell Flour and its sister company, Anchorage Leisures Limited over a disputed loan.
The court struck out the petition for abuse of court process. Addressing the court, the presiding judge, Justice Jude K. Dagat noted that a court faced with winding up application, must first determine
if the petition was brought in good faith.
He said that Ecobank knew that Honeywell was challenging the alleged debt and had instituted a matter before Justice Idris, who had earlier ruled that parties to the suit maintain the status quo ante bellum.
Despite the orders, Ecobank started its forum shopping by filing winding up petitions instead of recovery of the alleged debt. The fact of the case is that Honeywell had made payments to the tune ofN3.5
billion as full and final payment pursuant to the agreement of 22nd July 2014 by the parties.
Justice Dagat stated that since the matter pending before Justice Idris was premised on the same facts as the petition before his court, there was an established abuse of the orders of Justice Idris
regarding maintenance of status quo ante bellum.
The court held that Ecobank’s petition was aimed at overreaching the powers of the Federal High court in the suit before Justice Idris.
According to Justice Dagat, ‘’the Supreme Court has made it clear that it would amount to a travesty of justice for any court to hear a matter that is already before another court of coordinate jurisdiction’’.
Justice Dagat further ruled that if the court should proceed with Ecobank’s petition, it would create a conflict of decisions by different courts, which will not augur well within the Judiciary. “It is not in the interest of justice to allow this petition to stand even as the jurisdiction of the court has not been invoked on the matter. Ecobank’s petition was therefore strucked out and Honeywell’s challenge upheld.
