The Presiding Judge of National Industrial Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria Justice H. Gwandu has adjourned till 7th of July,2023 for definite hearing the $4.2 million suit instituted against a multinational Oil company, ExxonMobil Corporation and its parent body, Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited by its ex -staff, James Nwagbogwu Ebede, over forceful retirement.
Last Friday,the hearing of the case supposed to resume, but the lead counsel, for the defence Paul Usoro SAN was absent but sent a written letter to the court, through one of his counsels Mrs Esther Samuel that he may not be able to come to court that day as he was busy attending to election petition matters at the election petition tribunal, and that the cases are time bound therefore ask for adjournment.
However, James Ebede’s counsel, Barrister Chucks Uguru objected to any adjournment been given on the ground that,the case has lingered for long time since 2018 and his client has no access to his property as they have all been locked up, therefore his client who has given evidence should be cross examined or the defence should forfeit the right of cross Examination.
Secondly, the defendants are in contempt of the court, because they have not obey the order of court, that directed them to deposit $4.2million money in an interest yielding account.
In addition, Mr. Uguru cited the case of Malari versus Leigh 2019 Nigeria weekly Law Report part 1659.”
Parties to a civil matter should know that where they prosecute or defend a matter in a representative capacity, as in this case with the applicants, they have every right to assign anyone of them to step into the shoes of the one who handles their litigation, where, if exigencies demand, for instance, sickness or other debilitating factors, the latter is unable to proceed with the assignment given to him by those he represents.
It is even more dangerous where a party or litigant insists that only particular counsel from a law firm that must handle his matter in court if, God forbids, counsel dies or is permanently indispose This, I believe is one of the instances where a party must take a quick effective and spontaneous decision in relation to the way and manner counsel handles his case otherwise he must bear the consequence.”
Consequently, Mr Uguru, told the court that Paul Usoro has a big law firm with retinue of lawyers who can adequately represent him.
On the issue of contempt proceeding, Lawyer representing Exommobil, M. A. Sowumi told the court that,they have appeal against the ruling of the court and filed stay of execution of the order, but Mr. Uguru told the court that the contempt, proceeding is a separate case on its own.Since the order was made nothing has been done.
The Court had ordered that the 2nd defendant Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to furnish an account in any name with enough funds to offset the Judgment of this Honourable Court should the claimant’s claims succeed, but the company has failed to obey the order of the court leading to the issuance of form 48 consequence of disobedience to order of the court against six officials of the company namely Richard Lang, Alexander Savva, Mr Olusegun Banwo, Dozie Adesuwa, Aliyu Bala and Adelabu Adedoyin.
In a statement of fact filed before the National Industrial Court on behalf of the ex –ExxonMobil corporation staff, James Ebede stated that he worked with the company from December, 2001 to 2018 as an Engineer and that because of his consistent excellent performance, he was at various times given important responsibilities.
He averred that in 2015, he was deployed to Dubai, with the posting to last till December 2017, but that he was forcefully redeployed back to Nigeria and retired because he refused to carry out dishonest actions that he was being compelled to do by the manager of ExxonMobil while on assignment in the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
According to him, on his return to Nigeria, further punitive actions were taken against him leading to his forceful retirement Some of these actions, he said, were: the company attempting to compel him to employ unqualified engineer and that on several occasions, attempt were made to compel him to sign off uncompleted and poorly executed project as completed, among others.
Consequently, Mr Ebede is claiming $4.2 million as general damages for the emotional stress he had suffered; N114,992,096 being the equivalent of 32 months salary which the defendant ought to pay him for his forceful retirement and also demanding published public apology in two daily newspapers and two international newspapers.
However, the defendants, in their preliminary objection filed before the court urged the court to decline jurisdiction to entertain the suit on the ground that the ExxonMobil company is an entity incorporated under the laws of the United States of America, saying that the Nigerian court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
In his submission Ebede’s counsel contended that the company not only conducts its business in Nigeria by mean of subsidiaries, but also operates directly in Nigeria as it held operating interest in several Oil Mining OML and therefore urged the court to dismiss the objection of the defendants.
In his ruling, the presiding Judge, R. H. Gwandu, while adjourning for hearing said “I hold that this court has the jurisdiction to adjudicate on issues contained in the claimant’s suits both by subject matter and territory, the claimant having shown sufficient cause of action against the defendant.
