This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port-Harcourt Coram A.I. Kastina-Alu J.C.A (as he then was) and R.O. Roland, M.O. Onalaja, JJCA delivered m appeal No. CA/PH/55/88 on the 28th day of June 1994 in which it allowed the appeal of the present Respondent and set aside the judgment of Ojiako J (as he then was) delivered on the 4th day of December, 1987.

By a letter dated the 18th March, 1981 (Exhibit 11) the appellant was appointed as a Director of another company Dave Agricultural Development Project Limited, a subsidiary of the 2nd respondent company. The appellant accepted all these appointments and their provisions. Subsequently, the appellant was reassigned to Dave Agricultural Development Project Ltd. The letter effecting the re assignment (Exhibit 12) was written by the 1st respondent. On receipt of this letter the appellant sent a Memorandum, (Exhibit 21) to the 1st respondent in which the appellant stated that he did not understand what the 1st respondent meant and that he was not in agreement with the second paragraph of the letter.

Thereafter the appellant sued the respondents and claimed the following reliefs:-

Pleadings were ordered in accordance with the applicable rules of Court and while the Appellant as Plaintiff had filed his pleadings, the Respondent defaulted even though it was duly served with the Statement of Claim and other processes. The failure of the Respondent to file its Statement of Defence resulted in the Appellant presenting an application for judgment in default of pleadings in accordance with the rules of Court. The Respondent was duly served with the motion and was represented by counsel on 24th November 1986 when the application was fixed for hearing, but it filed no counter affidavit neither did it file any application for extension of time within which to file its Statement of Defence. The motion for judgment was however adjourned to 15th December 1986 for argument at the instance of learned counsel for the Appellant.

On the 15th day of December 1986 the motion was heard with the Respondent still not taking steps to put its house in order by way of extension of time to file its Statement of Defence neither did it file any counter affidavit in opposition to the affidavit in support of the application for judgment in default of pleadings. The motion was also not opposed on points of law by learned counsel for the Respondent as a result of which the learned trial Judge entered judgment for Appellant in the sum of N500,000.00 being the total amount claimed by the Appellant but dismissed the second relief which was earlier reproduced in this judgment. The trial Judge went on to make orders that the 2nd to 5th Defendants file their Statement of Defence, which orders were later complied with. However, on the 15th day of May 1987 the Respondent filed an application in which it prayed the trial Court to set aside its default judgment in default of pleadings and admit to defend the action. The motion was taken on 12th October 1987 and in a reserved ruling delivered on 4th December 1987, the learned trial Judge dismissed the application giving rise to an appeal by the Respondent to the Court of Appeal sitting at Port-Harcourt, the judgment on which resulted in the present appeal. The Court of Appeal in its judgment on 15/12/86 set aside the judgment of the trial Court.

The Plaintiff/Appellant then appealed to the Supreme Court.