A limited liability company, HEPA Global Energy limited has filed an application before a Federal high court sitting in Lagos south West Nigeria, seeking the order of the court to set aside default judgement of N30,511,278.20 alleged to have been obtained by an indigenous insurance company Great Nigeria Insurance Plc against the company.
In an affidavit sworn to by a legal practitioner, Mr Omoke Kelvin and filed before the court by a Lagos lawyer,Chief Abdullai Tony Dania,the plaintiff company Great Nigeria insurance Plc averred that the defendant was not served with any hearing notice and was not served with the judgment in issue, she only became aware when the Plaintiffs actually took step to garnishee the defendants accounts with some banks, consequently the non service of the processes of the suit from the date of
commencement of the suit till when the Plaintiff attempted to execute the said judgment which amounted to an ambush.
The defendant further revealed that the suit bearing suit number FHC/L/CS/901/2015 was originally pending before Justice muslim Hassan, the Plaintiff never served the Defendant any court process, and surreptitiously applied for judgment on default, only to withdraw the suit when the defendant filed counter affidavit in the said suit, and the suit was thereafter struck out .
In the above mentioned suit FHC/L/CS/901/2015 which was struck out by Justice Hassan, the Court served a hearing notice on the Defendant, who thereafter applied and obtained copies of the court processes filled in the suit; and the Defendant responded accordingly, and joined issues with the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff/Respondent knows where to serve the Defendant’s Counsel and yet neglected, failed and refused to serve the Defendant’s counsel the processes emanating from
the instant suit.
Subsequently, the Plaintiff initiated suit FHC/L/CS/1381/2016 and for reasons best known to him failed, neglected and refused to serve on the Defendant any process either personally, through his lawyer or by pasting on any conspicuous part of the
defendant’s premises.
The Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009 allows any party to bring an application of this nature at any time.
The Defendant having become aware of this suit is now ready and willing to defend same in the spirit of fair hearing and ultimately in the interest of justice.
The defendant contended that the judgment,and the execution of same which the applicant sought to be stayed was given in default of appearance of the Defendant, due to the fact that the Plaintiff deceived the court with the connivance of the ballif of the court that claimed to have served the processes, including hearing notices on the defendants.
This case is a typical improper practice of deliberately deceiving the court to obtain judgment in default of appearance by the plaintiff such parties must not be allowed to benefit from such act.
Plaintiff will not be prejudiced in anyway if this application is granted,consequently, the defendant urged the court to stop the execution of the default judgement.
