Facts
The Appellant and the Respondent were parties to an arbitration proceedings, wherein the Appellant was the Respondent, while the Respondent in this appeal was the Claimant. On 1st June 2001, the sole Arbitrator rendered an award in favour of the Respondent herein, in the sum of ₦12,912,000.00 (Twelve Million, Nine Hundred and Twelve Thousand Naira Only). Consequently, the Respondent filed a Motion on Notice dated 12th July 2001 before the Federal High Court, praying the court to make the arbitral award a final judgement of the court. In response, the Appellant filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection, urging the trial court to set aside the arbitral award. However, the Appellant failed to attend court proceedings on five consecutive occasions. Accordingly, on 11th December 2002, in the absence of the Appellant, the trial court struck out the Preliminary Objection for want of diligent prosecution and granted the Respondent’s prayers.
In a surprising turn of events, five years and eight months later, the Appellant filed a Notice of Appeal dated 2nd September 2008 before the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Judicial Division seeking to set aside the judgement of the trial court. In response, the Respondent filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection challenging the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to entertain the appeal on the ground that being a civil matter, it was filed outside the three-month period prescribed under Section 24(2)(a) of the Court of Appeal Act, 2004. The Court of Appeal upheld the objection of the Respondent and dismissed the appeal for being incompetent. Dissatisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal, the Appellant further appealed to the Supreme Court.
