CaseLaw
Ajayi V. Total Nig. Plc. (2013) CLR 7(b) (SC)
Judgement delivered on July 5th 2013
Brief
Facts
The Appellant in this appeal was the Plaintiff at the trial High Court of Justice Ekiti State sitting at Ijero – Ekiti where he filed an action against the Respondent and one other person as Defendants and claimed a number of reliefs arising from the management and control of the Total filing Station at Ifaki-Ekiti in Ekiti State.
The circumstances that gave rise to the dispute between the parties originated from Dealership and Lease Agreements between the father of the Appellant, now deceased, and the Respondent Company. The relationship started in 1960 when the Appellant's father Chief S. Ajayi leased a plot of land located at Ifaki Road junction, Ifaki - Ekiti to the Respondent for a term of 50 years subject to periodic revision which was to expire in the year 2010 subject to renewal. Pursuant to the relationship, the Respondent erected a Petrol Filing Station on the land and appointed the Appellant's father a dealer at the Filing Station under a Marketing Licence Agreement separate and independent of the Lease Agreement. However, in 1964 the Appellant's father Chief S. Ajayi died. Upon the death of the Appellant's father the Respondent on its own invited the Appellant to take over the Dealership of the Filing Station under the same agreement his father was operating with the Respondent. The business relationship between the parties continued until 1995 when the Respondent decided to enter into a fresh Dealership Agreement with the Appellant which Agreement was executed between the parties. However, by its letter dated 26th November, 1997, the Respondent decided to terminate the Dealership Agreement it had entered into with the Appellant because of apparent unsatisfactory performance. Meanwhile, in the course of business relationship with the Appellant since the death of his father in 1964, the Respondent undertook to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy in respect of the Filing Station it was occupying under the Lease Agreement due to expire in 2010, for the Appellant. Unfortunately, the Respondent obtained the Certificate of Occupancy in its own name. Thus, upon the discovery of the conduct of the Respondent and upon the receipt of the letter of termination of the Dealership Agreement, the Appellant refused to surrender the Filing Station and thereafter headed to the trial High Court of Justice of Ekiti State with an action claiming a number of reliefs against the Respondent as the Defendant in the action. The reliefs claimed by the Plaintiff/Appellant include a declaration that the termination of the Dealership Agreement was unlawful with damages in the alternative in addition to the relief for the nullification of the Certificate of Occupancy issued to the Respondent on the leased property.
The Respondent/Defendant on its part counter-claimed against the Appellant asking for surrender of the Filing Station and payment of compensation. At the conclusion of the hearing of the case, the learned trial Judge dismissed both the Appellant's claims and the Respondent's counter-claim upon holding that the Dealership Agreement operated by the parties was illegal though in the same judgment the trial Court also set aside the Certificate of Occupancy obtained in the name of the Respondent for having been obtained unlawfully.
Aggrieved by the judgment of the trial Court both parties headed to the Court of Appeal, llorin Division where the Respondent filed its appeal while the present Appellant filed a cross-appeal against the same judgment. At the end of the hearing of the appeal and the cross-appeal, the Court of Appeal allowed the Respondent's appeal in part while the Appellant's cross-appeal was allowed in full. Although the Respondent whose appeal was allowed in part was satisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on 8th December, 2003, the
Appellant whose cross-appeal was allowed in full was still not satisfied with part of the judgment of the Court of Appeal sustaining the termination of the Dealership Agreement between the parties earlier declared illegal by the trial Court, had decided to proceed on a further appeal to this Court in an attempt to restore the judgment of the trial Court on the validity or otherwise of the termination of the Dealership Agreement between the parties.