The facts of this case are not complicated nor are they disputed. The three Plaintiff/ Appellant companies (which were owned and managed by the same persons) ordered from Moscow in 1993 a consignment of electric water heaters and electric irons. The said consignment was loaded into five containers and the containers which were in turn placed on board the 2nd Defendant's vessel M7 V "Kadrina" in the port of Tallin for carriage to Lagos, Nigeria. The 2nd Defendants issued a number of bills of lading dated the 22nd March, 1993 covering the aforesaid consignment and the vessel sailed for Lagos.

On the 12th April, 1993 the vessel arrived Lagos and on the 10th May, 1993 (a month later) the aforesaid containers were discharged from the aforesaid vessel at Tin Can Island Container Terminal. Be it noted that as a substantial quantity of goods imported into Nigeria now come in containers, where a container is loaded on a vessel and transported from a foreign country to Nigeria, there is only one means of guaranteeing that the contents of the containers are not tampered with or pilfered in the" course of the transit from the shipper to the consigner in Nigeria. That is the purpose of the metal seal on the container.

The offloading from the vessel on 10th May, 1993 was witnessed by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA for short) officials and by representatives of the 3rd Defendants, Alraine (Nigeria) Limited (who at all material times the agents of the 2nd Defendant ship owners in Nigeria) as well as by the Plaintiff's clearing agent.

The Nigerian Port Authority tally clerk, it is stressed, tallied the containers being off loaded and issued Landing Tally Sheets, whilst the Alraine representative issued Container Intercharge Sheets, the Alraine representative issued Container Intercharge Receipt/Damage Reports.

The Appellant's Chairman and Managing Director PW3 (Hilary Obi) testified that he received information from his clearing agent that three out of five containers consigned to his company had been discharged on 19th May, 1993 aforesaid with their seals intact whilst the seals on the remaining two containers had been tampered with.

He then asserted that based on the information that the two containers bore "wire seals", he called for a joint examination of the two containers. This examination was conducted on the 3rd June, 1993 in the presence of customs & excise officials, representatives of the Defendants, the police, representatives of N.P.A and two surveyors appointed by him and by the 3rd Defendant. At Ac inspection, the two containers were opened for the first time and found to be completely empty.

Following this discovery, the Plaintiff's Solicitors wrote to the 3rd Defendant lodging a formal claim for the loss of the contents of the two said containers, namely 1011 boxes of the aforesaid electric water heaters and irons. In their reply Alraine did not challenge the allegation, but said they would refer the claim to their principal, the 2nd Defendant.

Emanating from the above facts, the present action arose herewith was commenced by the Plaintiff/Appellants claiming that the two relevant containers had been tampered with prior to off-loading from the 2nd Defendant's vessel and that the ship owners as well as their agents (Alraine) were liable to the Plaintiff/Appellants for the loss of the contents of the two containers. The evidence relied upon (which will be expatiated or elaborated upon at length in due course) was that the seals on the two containers bearing the inscriptions "Frezekova s.t.c" and Elektrozaved s.t.c." had been removed and replaced with twisted wire at some stage during the voyage from Tallin. The Appellant's case was that this cast the onus on the Defendants to explain the circumstances of the loss.

Auta, J. of the trial Court, the Federal High Court, dismissed the Plaintiff/ Appellant's case. On appeal to the Court of Appeal, the appeal was on the 2nd December, 1999 dismissed. It is against the said judgment of the Court of Appeal that this appeal has been brought to this Court.