Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos State, Nigeria, Monday ordered the seizure of an aircraft owned by Emirates Airline over N8.1 million judgment debt.
Justice Liman gave the order in order to ensure strict compliance to the judgement of Supreme Court in the suit between one Promise Mekwunye and the Emirates Airlines which was delivered in favour of Mekwunye.
Mwkwunye instituted the case against emirates as an aggrieved passenger in 2008 and the matter journeyed from the lower courts to the Supreme Court.
Justice Liman made the order following a motion filed by Dr Charles Mekwunye asking for the enforcement of a Supreme Court judgment in a suit between Promise Mekwunye and the airline.
While granting the request sought by Promise Mekwunye (applicant), Justice Liman, declared, “It is accordingly ordered that an attachment is hereby issued on the judgment debtor’s aircraft registered as ‘A6 Aircraft Type 77W EK: 783/784’, or any other aircraft belonging to the judgment debtor which flies into Nigeria Territory, to be arrested and detained until the judgment debt is fully paid, in default after 30 days, the aircraft shall be auctioned to satisfy the judgment debt.”
The judge further held that Emirates Airline shall bear the cost of maintainance and custody of the detained aircraft.
It would be recalled that Promise Mekwunye, who was at the time a student of North Texas University, Denton, Texas USA, had in 2008 instituted a legal action against the airline for refusal of boarding of her two-way flight ticket from Dallas to Nigeria and back without any reason and for further refusing to fully refund the cost of the ticket of American Airline she bought to come back to Nigeria.
The applicant/judgement creditor further claimed that the airline gave no reason for its action, thereby leaving her stranded for days at the airport until she was able to secure a more expensive flight ticket on a longer route to Lagos.
In his earlier judgement on the suit delivered on November 15, 2010, Justice Liman had held that the refusal of Emirates Airline to carry Promise Mekwunye amounted to a breach of contract of carriage.
Consequently, he ordered full refund of ticket without any deduction or charge, and further granted N2.5 million as general damages and N250,000 as legal costs against the airline.
However, not satisfied with the lower court judgement, Emirates Airline (Respondent/judgement debtor) went on appeal with an argument that the trial Judge erred in law when he awarded N250,000.00 as legal fees when the plaintiff claimed N1,000,000.00 but led no evidence.
The Respondent Airline further argued that the award of general damages was contrary to the Montreal Convention which not only limits the damages recoverable but placed obligation to prove willful misconduct/gross negligence against the airline before the airline can be liable for damages.
The Court of Appeal had upheld the contention of Emirates Airline and upturned the award of N250,000 and N2.5million earlier awarded to Promise Mekwunye.
The case then proceeded to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which in its lead judgment delivered on February 1, 2019, by Justice Ejembi Eko, overruled the decision of the Court of Appeal and upheld the earlier judgment of the Federal High Court.
The Apex Court maintained that the trial court was right in ordering Emirates Airline to pay in the circumstances N2.5 million as general damages in addition to ticket refund, stating that the airline cannot rely on the Montreal Convention for limitation of liability when it was guilty of fundamental breach of the contract as argued by the appellant’s lawyer, Dr. Mekwunye.
The Supreme Court equally declared among other things that the Court of Appeal was wrong to have heard and upturned the decision of the lower court when Emirates Airline never obtained leave of court to file the appeal as to costs.
The Apex Court posited that the denial of the Emirates Airline as per boarding was a repudiation of its contract with Mekwunye and a breach of the fundamental term of the contract which does not entitle it to rely on the Montreal Convention which sets limit of claims in an action between an airline and its passenger.
The judgement debt plus interest has since accumulated to about N8.1 million as Emirates airlines refuses to comply with the judgment, hence the motion seeking for enforcement of judgement.