AMRIT LAL GROVER V. INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE INDUSTRIES (NIGERIA) LIMITED

CORAM

EMANUEL OBIOMA OGWUEGBU, JSC. JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT (Read the Leading Judgment)

IRIKEFE, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT

MADARIKAN, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT

PARTIES

AMRIT LAL GROVER APPELLANTS

RESPONDENTS

AREA(S) OF LAW

SUMMARY OF FACTS

The plaintiff and the defendants company agreed by a written agreement to employ the plaintiff/appellant to serve the company as Garments Manager. The plaintiff was employed and all the necessary documents pertaining to his employment were signed. As a result of some disagreement, his appointment was terminated. Due to this, the plaintiff filed a suit where he claimed against the defendant company the sum of N26,180 as special and general damages for wrongful dismissal. About a month before the plaintiff filed his Statement of Claim, the defendant company applied for an order that all proceedings in the action be stayed. The reason given for the application is that the plaintiff and the defendant company, by an agreement in writing had agreed to refer to arbitration the matters in respect of which the action was brought. The learned trial Judge granted the application and ordered that the proceedings be stayed pending the submission of the plaintiffs claim to arbitration. Not satisfied with this decision, the plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court.

HELD

The appeal succeeded and was allowed.

ISSUES

Whether the learned trial Judge was in error or not in holding that the offer made to the plaintiff/appellant in the letter dated 15th March, 1974, and subsequently accepted by him, has not superseded the earlier Agreement to which the parties appended their respective signatures on 6th March, 1974.

RATIONES DECIDENDI

STATUS OF A LATER AGREEMENT BY PARTIES TO AN ORIGINAL CONTRACT

“The law is well settled that a later Agreement by the parties to an original contract to extinguish the rights and obligations that the original contract has created is itself a binding contract, provided that the later Agreement is either made under seal or is supported by consideration.”