The Supreme Court has set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal which awarded Elder Achuba Simon the sum of over N1.07 billion as alleged unpaid salaries, allowances, and entitlements.
The apex court held that the Court of Appeal exceeded its appellate jurisdiction when it proceeded, through a post-judgment application, to calculate and award specific monetary sums to Achuba instead of remitting the matter to the National Industrial Court, being the court of first instance, for proper determination and quantification of the alleged entitlements.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment, drew a clear distinction between a judgment declaring a party entitled to salaries and allowances and a judgment awarding a specifically quantified monetary sum.
According to the court, while the earlier judgment affirmed Achuba’s entitlement to salaries and allowances, it did not fix or pronounce any exact amount payable.
Consequently, any subsequent claim for a definite sum required proper commencement and proof before the National Industrial Court through appropriate proceedings.
The court further held that a post-judgment motion could not lawfully be used as a substitute for substantive proceedings involving the assessment, computation, and proof of disputed monetary claims, particularly claims running into billions of naira which may require pleadings, documentary evidence, and evaluation of competing figures.
In a pronouncement on appellate jurisdiction, the Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal effectively sat as a court of first instance when it undertook the exercise of calculating and awarding the N1.07 billion claim despite the absence of prior findings and evidential evaluation by the trial court on the exact sums due.
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The appellants, who were represented by Chief Joseph Bodunde Daudu, SAN, had argued that the earlier judgment merely affirmed Achuba’s entitlement to salaries and allowances without specifically quantifying the sums payable, and that any subsequent claim for a definite amount ought properly to have been initiated and determined before the National Industrial Court.
The appellants also argued that the Supreme Court possessed jurisdiction to entertain the appeal since the complaint before it was fundamentally against the wrongful assumption of original jurisdiction by the Court of Appeal.
The lead judgment was delivered by Justice Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme and was supported by three other Justices of the Supreme Court, while Hon. Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya dissented.
The dissenting judgment took a different view as to whether the Court of Appeal merely enforced an existing judgment or improperly assumed original jurisdiction by making a fresh substantive monetary award.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court set aside the N1.07 billion award made in favour of Simon Achuba, whose legal team was led by Femi Falana, SAN.
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