The plaintiff, it is claimed said that he met Mr. Ehinola when he was introduced to him and that it happened that Mr. Ehinola informed the plaintiff that he had in his domiciliary account with the defendant a large sum of money in dollars, some of which he offered to sell to the plaintiff at the rate of N4 to one US dollars. It would appear that while he was not willing to take advantage of this offer, it is clear that he was not willing to do so unless he was sure that Mr. Ehinola had the money in his domiciliary account as claimed. In order to confirm the claim of Mr. Ehinola and to ascertain the liquidity position of the account, the plaintiff went with Mr. Ehinola to defendant's central branch in Lagos. There, Mr. Ehinola applied to withdraw the sum of US$33,643.00 from his account. Whereupon, the bank official who saw them told them to come back the following day. When they get there as directed, the plaintiff was informed that he could proceed with the foreign exchange transaction with Mr. Ehinola as his account with the Bank is in sufficient funds to accommodate the amount applied for by Mr. Ehinola. The plaintiff claimed that in the presence of the Bank official concerned, the naira equivalent of 33,643.00 US dollars which was N134,572.00 (One hundred and thirty four thousand, five hundred and seventy two naira) was handed over to Mr. Ehinola. Therefore, it is claimed, the defendants, through one of his official drew up the bank draft No. 031069 for $33,643.00 in favour of the plaintiff. The draft was then handed over immediately to the plaintiff who with the draft in his possession returned to the defendant's branch in Benin City where he was advised that he would be able to encash the sum on the draft issued to him by the Bank. Upon the presentation of the draft at the draft at the defendant's branch in Benin City for payment as aforesaid he was advised to open an account with the draft. The plaintiff complied with this advise on 18/11/86. On that day he was allocated his account Number FCA/COO3 and was also issued with a teller exhibit 1 with which he paid the draft into his account with the bank. He was then asked to call back at the bank after 21 days to collect the proceeds of the draft. On 21/12/86, when he called at the bank, he received nothing. Rather the bank official whom he saw explained to him that nothing has been heard from their head office in Lagos. After several abortive calls at the bank to encash the draft, the plaintiff had to engage the services of a solicitor to press his claim. It was the failure to collect his money from the bank that precipitated this action as the defendant's bank wrote a letter to the plaintiff repudiating any payment on the draft.

From its pleading and the evidence led, the case for the defendant is that the domiciliary account of Mr. Ehinola's was funded from a forged foreign draft. It is also the case for the defendant that at no time was the plaintiff informed of the money standing to the credit of the said Mr. Ehinola's domiciliary account with the defendant. It is also the case for the defendant that the plaintiff is not entitled to recover the proceeds of the draft as the transaction or arrangement he made with Mr. Ehinola is illegal and the defendant cannot be bound with such an illegal transaction. In this regard the defendant called in aid the provisions of the Foreign Currency (Domiciliary Accounts) Decree 18 of 1986 which it is claimed forbid transactions in foreign exchange other than with an authorised dealer. It is also the case for the defendant that the bank was not a party to or privy to the sale of foreign currency by Ehinola to the respondent and claimed that it merely acted as a conduit pipe or an accommodation party in the drawing up and issue of the draft or bill in favour of the plaintiff.

After hearing the evidence called by both sides and the addresses of their learned counsel, the learned trial Judge delivered a very well considered judgment. By that judgment the claims of the plaintiff were upheld and he was awarded the sum of US$33,643.00 with interest at 10 per cent from the date the judgment was delivered until the entire judgment debt is liquidated. Also, costs in the sum of N700.00 was awarded in favour of the plaintiff.

The defendant, not satisfied with the judgment of the trial court appealed to the Court of Appeal.