Sometime in 1980, the plaintiff/respondent placed order for 10,000 clutch cables from overseas. It is a registered company carrying on business in Nigeria. I will call it K.R. or the respondent in this judgment. On 17th January, 1981, K.R. received a valued invoice from their confirming agent in London. It is Exhibit A. It was stated in Exhibit A that K.R. should expect 10,000 clutch cables packed in 67 cartons to be shipped on board the vessel of the appellant, "K" Line Inc. I will call it the appellant or "K" Line. It is a shipping company resident abroad and carries on business in Nigeria. It is the owner of M/V Chai Varee. According to Exhibit A, the goods were to be shipped in M/V Chai Varee, the vessel of the appellant.

Later, K.R. received the Bill of Lading (Exhibit D) through the Allied Bank of Nigeria Ltd. The Bill of Lading described K.R. as a "notify", although at the time K.R. collected it from the Bank it was endorsed to it. K.R. paid the customs duty and subsequently endorsed Exhibit D for a value of N17,745 to the Allied Trading Company. When M/V Chai Varee arrived and Allied Trading Company went to the warehouse to collect the goods stated in Exhibit D, they could not be found. Allied Trading Company wrote K.R. a letter informing it of the situation. That was by Exhibit B. K.R. returned the sum of N17,745 and received in return a receipt Exhibit C. Allied Trading Company re-endorsed Exhibit D to K.R.

On 29th March, 1981, K.R. wrote a letter to "K" Line through its agent,. The Nigeria National Shipping Line, informing it about the non-delivery of the 67 cartons containing 10,000 clutch cables. The letter (Exhibit E) was copied the 2nd defendant/respondent - the Alraine (Nig.) Ltd. I will call it Alraine. Both the National Shipping Line and Alraine replied by Exhibits G and F respectively. Following the receipt of Exhibit G,K.R. submitted its claim as in Exhibit H and H1 but it was not paid.

K.R. filed this action claiming the sum of N20,000 as special and general damages for the loss of and or non-delivery of 67 cartons clutch cables. K.R. also claimed in the alternative negligence for the non-delivery of the goods.

The case was heard by the Federal High Court, Lagos, it being an admiralty matter. Sowemimo, J. was the trial Judge. In a well considered judgment, he found the appellant liable and gave judgment in favour of K.R.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, "K" Line appealed.