UDO UDOMA, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appellants herein, as respondents in the Lagos State High Court, Suit No. M171169, have complained against the ruling given in favour of the respondent, therein applicant, on 9th September, 1971 by Gomez J. and have therefore appealed against the said ruling to this Court.
The facts and circumstances which gave rise to the suit are not in dispute and may be briefly summarised as follows:-
By a formal building contract in writing under the title KJ .14 dated 1966 made by and between the Niger Dams Authority, the appellants that is, on the one part and Chief Victor Ladipo Lajide, trading under the name and style of Victory Builders and Agencies, the respondent that is, on the other part, the latter agreed to construct 11 resettlement villages in the Shanga area of the east bank of the Kainji Reservoir, the contract to subsist for 12 months.
The contract, KJ. 14 is in a printed and bound volume. It is a formidable and voluminous…