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His Lordship, Hon. Justice I. J. Essien of the National Industrial Court sitting at Enugu 15th February 2018 gave a ruling dismissing a preliminary objection and assumed jurisdiction over a suit in the case of Davidson Iloh v. Alo Aluminium Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
The defendant/applicant by a notice of preliminary objection brought pursuant to S. 254 (c) 1 of the 1999 constitution as amended and S.7 (i) (ii) of the NIC Act 2006, sought an order of this court striking out this suit on the grounds that this suit is founded on negligence and as such this court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain this action.
The crux of the application is that the claimant’s claim is founded on negligence and negligence is not subsumed in the jurisdiction of this court and therefore the court cannot assume jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.
In response the claimant counsel has argued that the claims of the claimant is covered by the jurisdiction of this court as conferred by S.254 C(1) of the 1999 constitution.
He also argued that the notice of preliminary objection offends Order 15 Rule 1 of the rules of this court and urged the court to dismiss the motion.
After reviewing the argument of the parties, the Court Presided by HON. JUSTICE I.J. ESSIEN (Ph.D) had this to say:
I have listened to the oral and written submission of counsel in this matter and have also considered the argument of counsel contained in the addresses of counsel. The question for determination here is “whether this court has the jurisdiction to entertain this suit”.
This the court must do by looking at the provisions of S.254(c)(1) which confers jurisdiction on this court on matters:
254 (c) – 1 (a) relating to or connected with any labour, employment, trade union industrial relations and matters arising from work place, the conditions of service, including health, safety, welfare of labour, employee, worker and matters incidental thereto or connected therewith
I have also noted that this application was filed without the defendant applicant filing their defence in compliance with Order 15 Rule 1 of the rule of this court.
This rule requires the defendant to file the defence in this suit within 14 days of the service of the complaint on the defence along with any objection the defendant intends to raise to the claimant’s action. The defendant has not filed a defence to this action before raising this Notice of Preliminary Objection.
It is the decision of this court that the Notice of Preliminary Objection is also incompetent. In the light of the first decision given in this ruling that this court has jurisdiction to entertain this matter.
The Notice of Preliminary Objection is hereby dismissed.
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