Honeywell Floors Ecobank at Supreme Court

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

About three appeals filed by Ecobank against Honeywell Group at the Supreme Court were last Friday dismissed by the apex court of the land. The appeals were thrown out for lack of merit.

The Court of Appeal on March 30, 2016, had issued rulings against Ecobank which the bank thereafter appealed at the Supreme Court.

In the first suit number SC/402/2016, Ecobank had appealed the decision of the Court of Appeal discharging the ex parte injunctive/asset freezing orders which it had obtained against Honeywell.

In the second suit number SC/406/2016, Ecobank had also appealed the decision of the Court of Appeal which had affirmed the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear the suit filed by Honeywell Companies. The court of appeal had also ordered accelerated hearing of the suit at the Federal High Court and Ecobank also challenged this ruling at the Supreme Court.

Finally, in the suit number SC/407/2016, Ecobank appealed the ruling of the Court of Appeal striking out, rather than dismissing, the contempt proceedings filed by Honeywell.

But on July 13, 2018, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by the learned judges, held that Ecobank’s appeals were frivolous and thereafter dismissed them.

In a statement issued by Honeywell, it disclosed that, “In delivering judgment, the Justices of the Supreme Court reprimanded Ecobank for wasting the Court’s time by filing appeals which it described as frivolous, particularly in light of the myriad of critical matters before the apex court.

“The Supreme Court also advised Ecobank’s lawyers against filing such applications in the future. The court finally awarded costs totalling N2.5 million against Ecobank and also affirmed the directive for accelerated hearing at the Federal High court as earlier issued by the Court of Appeal.”

Recall that Honeywell had filed a suit seeking a declaratory order to the effect that Honeywell is no longer indebted to Ecobank.

In its application before the Federal High Court, Honeywell had averred that its payment of the sum of N3.5 billion was full and final settlement of its obligations to the bank; a position which was affirmed in an earlier ruling by the Bankers’ Committee which sought to resolve the matter initially.