ERABOR
V.
INCAR NIGERIA LTD

T. O. ELIAS, C.J.N. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): In 1964 the plaintiff was employed by the defendant company as a salesman on a monthly salary of 25 pounds (N50) and a commission of two per cent on every new car sold by the company and one and half percent on every second hand car sold by the company on the introduction of the plaintiff. The plaintiff was one of several salesmen so employed by the defendant, each salesman being assigned to specific Ministries and other establishments in Lagos, with the instruction that no one salesman should poach in the field of assignment of any other salesman. On the out break of the civil war, it became impossible for the salesman assigned to the Ministry of Defence to carry out his duties normally because, as someone from the rebel enclave, he felt he was not safe to deal with the soldiers at that time. The salesman discussed the matter among his colleagues, including the plaintiff, and both he and the plaintiff then went before their Europ…