The plaintiff, Abate Fantaye, who is the respondent in this appeal, and who hereafter, in this judgment, would be referred to as the respondent, took a writ in the High Court of Lagos State against the African Reinsurance Corporation, who would be referred to as the appellants hereinafter in this judgment, claiming for wrongful termination of appointment.

Defendants/appellants entered conditional appearance and respondent sought to restrain the appellants from ejecting him until judgment and from depriving him of his Diplomatic Identity Card and Visa. The order was granted.

Appellants application seeking to set aside the writ of summons for lack of jurisdiction was struck out for non-appearance of the appellant’s counsel. Respondent then filed an application for judgment in default of defence. Appellants on the other hand brought another application seeking to set aside the writ of summons for lack of jurisdiction.

It was held by the learned trial judge that even though the defendant corporation had diplomatic immunity, it could waive such and in fact did waive such by tendering Exhibit AR1, which contains the corporations articles.

Appellants aggrieved by this appealed to the Court of Appeal which vide a split decision dismissed the appellant’s appeal. Appellants thus appealed to the Supreme Court.