The Plaintiff in this case claimed from the defendant in the lower court the sum of N5,933.34 made up as follows:-

The learned trial Judge, Belgore, J. (as he then was) entered judgment in fa¬vour of the Plaintiff for a total sum of N2,033.30 with costs.

As at the time when the summons was taken out the defendant was not in the country, he was however represented by counsel when the order for pleadings was made. The order for pleadings was made on the 18th of July 1975 for the Plaintiff to file and serve his Statement of Claim within twenty-one days and the De¬fendant was given forty-five days for filing and serving his Statement of Defence. The Plaintiff duly filed a Statement of Claim on the 8th of August, 1975.

After the Statement of Claim had been filed on the 8th of August, 1975, which was the first date for such filing, it was not served upon the counsel for the defendant until the 17th of September 1975. When the matter came before the court on the 27th October 1975, the de¬fendant made an application for extension of time within which to file a Statement of Defence. This application was not opposed by the counsel who represented the plaintiff.

The learned trial Judge, instead of granting the application which was not opposed by the plaintiff adjourned the case to another date and awarded N15.00 cost against the defendant.

Upon resumption of the hearing and despite the fact that the Statement of Claim was not served on the defendant's counsel until five weeks after the expiration of the date for such service, as ordered by the learned trial Judge, and to which his attention was drawn, he refused the application for extension of time and again awarded N15.00 cost against the defendant. Counsel who appeared for the defendant holding the brief of Mr. Agbamuche, requested leave to withdraw appearance. When the case came up again, another counsel holding Mr. Agbamuche’s brief renewed the application for extension of time to file a defence but this was refused by the learned trial Judge, who proceeded to hear the plaintiff's case and gave judgment in his favour the following day.s