The plaintiff claimed against the defendants jointly and severally the total sum of US S229,713.3 and N304,410.64 together with interest being discharging fees, transportation and storage charges and legal expenses in respect of two cargoes of frozen fish ordered by the defendants and severally brought to Nigeria in the plaintiff's vessels M.V "Frost Castor" and MV "Normandic." The defendants counter-claimed for a total sum of N750,233.80 being cost of 6464 cartons of unsound fish, transportation, additional storage charges, short-delivery and the cost of disposing the unsound fish.

The basis of the plaintiffs claim was that its two vessels were chartered to carry cargoes of frozen fish from Holland for delivery in Apapa, Lagos to the 1st defendant who apparently was also acting for the other defendants. The ships arrived in Lagos on schedule but the cargoes of frozen fish were not offloaded by the defendants on time. The sums claimed were the total amount of loss that the plaintiff alleged it suffered.

At the trial and in the appeal to the Court of Appeal the main issue was whether or not the defendants were liable under the charter parties which the plaintiff claimed embodied the contract of affreightment. The defendants contended that they were not parties thereto and that the terms of such charter parties so claimed by the plaintiff were not incorporated in the bills of lading issued on behalf of the Masters of the vessels in which said bills of lading the 1st defendant was named as Notify Party. They went further to contend that there were no charter parties because the docu¬ments relied on by the Plaintiff as being the charter parties were unsigned.

The trial judge rejected the Appellants above contentions.

An appeal by the Appellants to the Court of Appeal was dismissed.

Appellants further appealed to the Supreme Court.