First International Bank SL. Ltd AND Tarrick Jaward (Civ. App 31/2015) [2020] SLCA 16 (20 January 2020);

CONCURRING JUDGMENT

WITH A DISSENT ON THE AWARDS RESUUTING

DATED               November 2020

Halloway JSC

I have had the benefit of reading the judgment of my brother the Hon. Mr. Justice Reginald Sydney Fynn JA. I agree with his Lordship’s recollection of the facts and submissions made before us by counsel. I also agree with his Lordship’s assessment and analysis of the law related to those facts.

Though the Learned Trial Judge (LTJ) may not have explained the issues and reasoning in detail, I find the awards given in the court below to be compatible with the law. In this regard, it is my opinion that the LT J got the outcome right, and that his judgment should not be disturbed at all.

I will join my brothers to disallow the appeal but I will make an award in the exact terms as the LTJ had done, as follows:

  1. General damages in the sum of Le 50,000,000
  2. Special Damages in the sum of Le 35,000,000 bi-monthly

In support of my view aforesaid is the case between OBE RE and BOARD OF MANAGEMENT EKU BAPTIST HOSPITAL (1973) 1 LRN 246 in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where FATAYI-WILLIAMS JSC held as follows:

‘An Appellate Court is not justified in substituting a figure of its own for that awarded by a lower Court simply because it would have awarded a different figure if it had tried the case at first instance. Before the Appellate Court can properly intervene it must be satisfied either that the Judge in assessing the damages applied the wrong principle of law such as taking into account some irrelevant factor or leaving out of account some relevant factor or that the amount awarded is either so ridiculously low or so ridiculously high that it must have been a wholly erroneous estimate of the damage’.

I am not satisfied either that the LTJ in assessing the damages applied the wrong principle of law such as taking into account some irrelevant factor or that the amount awarded is so ridiculously high that it must have been a wholly erroneous estimate of the damages which he awarded aforesaid.

Hon. Justice Allan Bhammie Halloway JSC