SALAMI JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): This is an interlocutory appeal from thedecision of the Lagos High Court delivered on 24 September 1999, in pursuance of notice of preliminary objection brought by the defendant under Order 23, rule 2 of the Lagos High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 1994.
Plaintiffs commenced the action by a writ of summons issued from the High Court of Lagos State on 1 December 1997, claiming as endorsed on the amended writ of summons thus: The equivalent sum in Naira of UK £95,927.28 (ninety-five thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven pounds and twenty- eight pence) at the autonomous rate of exchange prevailing on the date payment, being special damages suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the defendant’s breach of contract and/ or negligence and breach of duty as carrier for reward in conveying the plaintiffs’ Ruston Diesel Power Engine from Port Harcourt to Calabar.
The sum of N5,000,000 (five million naira) general damages A for breach of contract an…