A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday ordered Ecobank Nigeria to pay Honeywell Flour Mills N72.2 billion in damages, bringing to an end an aspect of the longstanding legal battle between both firms.
The legal battle kicked off in November 2015 when Ecobank obtained ex-parte orders from the court to freeze Honeywell Flour Mills’ assets, including all its bank accounts.
Honeywell Flour Mills applied for discharge of the orders, with the court varying the asset freezing ex-parte orders and allowing the company limited access to its accounts.
In March 2016, a Court of Appeal overruled the ex-parte orders to restore Honeywell Flour Mills’ right to operate its accounts without any restrictions, stating that Ecobank’s application to freeze the assets should not have been allowed to stand.
In an appeal against the judgment, Ecobank asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision.
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The apex court in July 2018 upheld the appellate court’s decision that an ex-parte injunction was not permitted to be filed in a winding-up petition.
After the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s judgment, Honeywell Flour Mills demanded Ecobank fulfilled its undertaking to compensate the company for the loss suffered due to the ex-parte order, being baseless. The company sought damages in excess of N72bn against Ecobank.
After deliberations, Justice Mohammed Liman favoured Honeywell Flour Mills and granted all four reliefs sought, totalling N72.2bn.
