CaseLaw
Ugochukwu V. CCB Nig. Ltd (1996) CLR 3(d) (SC)
Brief
Facts
The plaintiff was a good customer of the Defendant for many years who enjoyed overdraft and loan facilities amongst others. The plaintiff used facilities to import goods from overseas and the defendant would raise letters of credit on behalf of the plaintiff in favour of the plaintiff’s overseas customers. It was also the practice for the Defendant to debit plaintiff’s account with amount in excess of the invoice value of any consignment with the understanding that when the Bill of Exchange was raised in favour of the overseas customer, any balance not utilised in the remittance was credited to the plaintiff as a refund. In aid of the above arrangement, the Defendant sometime in 21978, granted the plaintiff at the plaintiff’s request, an overdraft or loan facility of N30,000.00 at a fixed interest rate of 9 per centum per annum secured by a mortgage of the plaintiff’s property at No 239 Cameroun Road Aba. The defendant realising in 1988 that the plaintiff was owing it N1,047,249.00 and that he was not repaying the loan, informed him of its intention to exercise its right under the Mortgage Deed to sell the plaintiff’s property at No 239 Cameroun Road, Aba. This prompted the plaintiff to file the suit claiming the reliefs set out above.
At the end of the trial, the learned trial Judge gave judgment in favour of the plaintiff Aggrieved, the defendant appealed to the Court of Appeal which in a unanimous decision allowed the appeal and order the plaintiff to pay to the defendant the sum of N652,326.86 being an amount established by the defendant against the plaintiff at the trial.
The plaintiff, dissatisfied appealed to the Supreme Court.