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ǼLEX LITIGATION NOTES
ǼLEX is pleased to have successfully represented General Electric International Operations Nigeria Limited (GEION), the Appellant, Appeal No. SC/CV/975/2020 – General Electric International Operations Nigeria Limited v. Q Oil and Gas Services Limited at the Supreme Court where it canvassed the position that an order referring parties to arbitration/mediation and staying proceedings sine die is an interlocutory decision and an appeal against such a decision must be filed within 14 days and with the leave of court.
Q Oil and Gas Services Limited (Q-Oil), the Respondent, commenced proceedings against the Appellant at the High Court of Rivers State (the “trial court”) under the Undefended List Procedure, claiming the sum of US$459,123.27 as outstanding contractual payments and post-judgment interest. ǼLEX, on behalf of the Appellant, filed a Notice of Intention to Defend, alongside a Motion for Stay of Proceedings, pending arbitration pursuant to an arbitration clause incorporated by reference into the agreement between the parties.
In a well-considered ruling, the learned trial judge, Green J., granted the Appellant’s application for stay of proceedings, referred the parties to mediation/arbitration in Florence, Italy, and adjourned the matter sine die to await the outcome of the mediation/arbitration proceedings. Dissatisfied, the Respondent appealed to the Court of Appeal. The appeal was filed 86 days after the ruling of the trial court.
The Appellant raised a preliminary objection at the Court of Appeal to the competence of the appeal, on the ground that the ruling of the trial court was interlocutory in nature and ought to have been filed within the 14-day statutory timeframe for interlocutory decisions and with the leave of court by virtue of section 24 of the Court of Appeal Act and section 242 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. The Court of Appeal, however, dismissed the preliminary objection and held that the ruling of the trial court was a final decision and proceeded to determine the appeal on its merits. In its judgment, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, set aside the ruling of the trial court and remitted the case to the Hon. Chief Judge of Rivers State for reassignment to another judge to be heard and determined.
GEION appealed to the Supreme Court, contending that the Court of Appeal fell into a grave error when it held that the trial court’s order staying proceedings pending arbitration/mediation was final. The Appellant also contended that the said order, which was made sine die, did not dispose of the rights of the parties, but merely suspended the action pending the parties taking the contractually agreed step to refer their dispute to arbitration or mediation. In response, the Respondent contended that the trial court’s ruling was a final decision and that it was validly filed within three (3) months from the date of the ruling.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Appellant’s submissions and held that the determinative factor in classifying a decision as “final” or “interlocutory” is whether the decision conclusively determined the rights of the parties in respect to the subject matter of the dispute, leaving nothing else for the trial court to address. The Supreme Court held that a decision staying proceedings is not a declaration of the lack of jurisdiction, neither does it extinguish the trial court’s residual supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitral process. The Supreme Court, therefore, held that the trial court’s ruling was interlocutory and that the failure to obtain leave, compounded by the fact that the appeal was filed 86 days after the trial court’s ruling, rendered the appeal incompetent. Accordingly, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal and awarded costs in the sum of N1 Million in favour of the Appellant.
Adedapo Tunde-Olowu, SAN, Rebecca Ebokpo and Rafiq Anammah from AELEX represented the Appellant in the Appeal
