The Court of Appeal has set aside a judgment of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had earlier awarded N30 million in damages against United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.
The appellate court, in a landmark decision, ruled that the case filed against UBA was wrongly instituted as a fundamental rights action.
The Court upheld UBA’s contention that the applicant, Mr. Stephen Smart Asime, could not disguise what was essentially a civil dispute as a fundamental rights enforcement matter in order to benefit from the special procedure provided under that law.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal also held that the applicant failed to establish any case that entitled him to reliefs against UBA. Consequently, the N30 million damages awarded by the trial court were set aside in their entirety.
Legal practitioners have hailed the decision as precedent-setting, especially for clarifying the limits of fundamental rights enforcement procedures. In agreeing with the position of the Appellant’s counsel led by Obinna Mbata, Esq, the ruling underscores that not every dispute involving individuals and corporate entities can be shoehorned into the category of fundamental rights violations.
By this decision, the Court of Appeal has reinforced the principle that fundamental rights actions are special procedures reserved strictly for genuine cases of rights violations, and not for ordinary civil claims disguised as such.