BAIRAMIAN, F.J. (Delivering the Judgment of the Court):
This is an appeal by the defendants from the judgment of the High Court of the Northern Region given in suit K/160/1958, on the 21st December, 1959, whereby they were ordered to repay the plaintiffs £281:10s:7d, which the plaintiffs had paid under protest for the release of certain goods. The plaintiffs are a firm in Kano; the defendants carry on business as clearing and forwarding agents at Apapa, and have an office at Kano also: (the correspondence was with their office at Apapa). The defendants exercised the lien under a clause in their conditions for handling goods; the Learned Judge decided that they had no right to do so for a reason which will be discussed later.
The crucial point in the case seems to me to be whether the defendants had a general lien by contract.
The plaintiffs wrote to them on the 20th June, 1948 (Exhibit 3) enclosing various documents and asking them to clear and rail certain goods, saying; ‘The above good…