John Hingah Biem v Social Democratic Party – Taking the Wind Out of the Sails of MV Arabella?

Description

ABSTRACT

John Hingah Biem v Social Democratic Party – Taking the Wind Out of the Sails of MV Arabella?

Folabi Kuti*

The Supreme Court, the final court in the judicial hierarchy, is solely vested with handing down decisions that are policy statements on sundry matters affecting the citizenry in general, and in particular, the litigants before the Court, either in exercise of a right of appeal to that final court, or when the original jurisdiction of the Court is invoked. It, expectedly, raises grave concern when simple matters of procedure become center stage in the justice delivery sector – or, to be precise, the superior courts of record- at such an alarming rate that substantive issues easily get obscured or unattended to. It is in the light of this concern that decisions of the apex court departing from and/or clarifying procedural technicalities that have endured passage of time and inflicted hardship/uncertainty in the administration of civil justice system are a welcome one. John Hingah Biem v Social Democratic Party, a recent decision of the Supreme Court on one such procedural point has generated a lot of attention in the legal community. The much taunted view that the Supreme Court has now departed from its earlier decision on the applicability of the provisions of the Sheriffs & Civil Process Act to originating processes issued/filed at the Federal High Court is one that this review, examining relevant facts and judicial decisions on the issue, brings into sharp focus.

Keywords: Originating processes, Sheriffs & Civil Process Act, Supreme Court, Federal High Court, John Hingah Biem v Social Democratic Party

INTRODUCTION
It is not often that the final court gets to review its decisions. When it does make a departure, and a welcome one at that, from a previously taken position of law, it is an event that is greeted with much excitement by many an enthusiastic legal commentator. The moment is made even more profound when the decision being departed from had appeared flawed from the outset and was accorded an unintended wide amplitude by subsequent decisions that dutifully followed the pattern

*Folabi Kuti LL.M, BL; Notary Public. Partner, Perchstone & Graeys, Lagos Nigeria.

THE GRAVITAS REVIEW OF BUSINESS & PROPERTY LAW VOL.10 NO.3