The appellants (defendants at the trial) vide a letter, offered to supply the Ministry of Communications, certain telecommunication equipment for the Ogoja/Calabar and Lagos/Calabar telecommunication links. The said letter also had a separate offer to instal the said equipment.

Both offers were accepted by the Ministry which then asked that the equipment be supplied within six to eight weeks and to instal same with¬in two weeks of delivery.

At the end of trial the trial court entered judgment in favour of the respondent against the appellant in the sum of N64, 500.00 being balance of his N203, 000.00 advanced to the appellant. The respondent was also awarded N10, 000.00 as general damages. The appellant’s counter claim was dismissed.

The equipment arrived in Nigeria but one item was missing which the ministry had selected. Rather a different unit which could perform similar role was offered. The equipment was “received in good condition” by an official of the Ministry.

The company was paid on the same day. A representative of the Ministry had already conceded that the substituted item could do the same job as the one ordered.

At installation, the appellants failed to instal the equipment within the agreed two weeks period or soon thereafter. The Ministry caused a letter to be written complaining about the delay. Appellants replied stating that certain equipments were not performing properly and such had been reported to the suppliers.

When the delay persisted, the ministry took certain steps to stop the work and brought the present action claiming a total refund of £26,900 for the equipment, £10,000 damages for breach of contract and alternatively £10,000 damages for breach of warranty ex post facto.

The learned trial Judge found that the appellants were in breach and awarded damages assessed at £30,000 - £29,600 being refund of the amount paid for the consideration which has totally failed and £400 as general damages.