ONYEKACHI AJA OTISI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This appeal was lodged against the ruling of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, Lagos State (the lower Court), delivered on November 13, 2003, coram A. A. B. Gumel, J. (as he then was), wherein certain applications were granted in favour of the 3rd and 4th Respondents.
The facts leading to this appeal can be summarized in this manner. The 1st and 2nd Respondents, by an ex parte application, sought to register the interim payment Order in the summary judgment of the Queen’s Bench Division Commercial Court of the High Court of Justice in England, delivered by Justice Langley on 26/11/1999. G.A.A.T. Jinadu, J., then Judge of the lower Court, heard and granted the 1st and 2nd Respondents’ ex-parte application for the judgment to be registered as a Judgment of the Federal High Court.
The 3rd and 4th Respondents filed an application to set aside the registration of the judgment. Before the application could be heard, the Jina…