ESQ Legal Practice Magazine JUNE 2014 EDITION | Page 77

basis, other factors such as the
conduct of the parties may be
taken into consideration by
the court.
Clients all over the globe are
becoming more conscious of
the need to control legal costs.
For example, Shell recently
took the bold step of employing a Queen's Counsel (Q.C.),
Mr. Peter Rees, as its Executive
Director Legal, to oversee its
Legal Division.
According to Mr Rees Q.C.
himself, one of the positive
consequences of this step, for
Shell, is that more of Shell's
legal work, most especially in
terms of legal advice and
commercial transactions
which Shell would have
ordinarily referred to external
Solicitors, are now being
handled internally.

Clients all over the globe are becoming more
conscious of the need to control legal costs. For
example, Shell recently took the bold step of
employing a Queen's Counsel (Q.C.), Mr. Peter
Rees, as its Executive Director Legal, to oversee
its Legal Division.
Minister of Justice has
exercised his power to extend
its application to a particular
country. Regrettably, he is yet
to exercise his power to extend
the application of the law to
any country up till now. This
position of the law was most
lucidly explained by the
honourable Justice Ayoola
when he was on the Court of
Appeal bench in the Ayela
case which regrettably
remains unreported.
It appears that the position
therefore is that all
Judgements which have been
obtained outside Nigeria in
the countries to which
Chapter 175 is not applicable
cannot be enforced, except the
judgment creditor or the
winning party sues on the
Judgment
The Supreme Court appeared,
in some of its judgments, to
have applied the provisions of
both Chapter F35 (the former
Chapter 152) and Chapter 175
interchangeably as if the two
enactments are simultaneously in force. This can be
seen from cases such as the
Macaulay v RBZ Bank case,
77 I EsQ legal practice

and more recently in Vab
Petroleum v. Momah.
Managing litigation is not
just about getting a successful outcome; it is about
understanding and managing
the needs of your client and
the way they want to run
their international business.
Do costs need to be predictable?
Most certainly legal costs
need to be predictable.
Remember that one of the best
business practices is that the
business must have a financial
plan for every venture. You
may want to call it a budget.
By your question I understand
you to have in mind the
overall amount that the client
may require to carry through a
particular litigation, and not
necessarily the costs that are
awarded to the victorious
party at the end of the
litigation. While the former
can be predictable, the latter
may not be simply because the
costs are not awarded on
indemnity basis here in
Nigeria. Even if costs are
awarded on an indemnity

What current dispute
resolution trends can you
identify in Nigeria most
especially in the light of the
controversial Bill known as
the National Arbitration
Regulation Commission Bill
which is currently before the
National Assembly?
The Federal Government of
Nigeria seems determined to
go ahead with law, even
though the law has been
rightly and widely condemned. It may interest you
to know that without the Bill
having become law, the
Federal Government of
Nigeria is beginning to
implement part of the
provisions of the Bill, albeit
indirectly.
This is manifested in the
pending litigation between
Mr. Candide-Johnson &
Others v. Nigerian Port
Authority and Others. The
case arose in an interesting
manner. The Nigerian Port
Authority and the Transport
and Management Co. Ltd.
entered into an agreement for
the latter to render cargo
tracking services to the former.
The Port Authority cancelled
the Agreement as a result of
which the Company gave a
Notice of Arbitration whereby
it sought to challenge the
cancellation of the contract
before the Arbitral Tribunal as
agreed by the parties. The
arbitration agreement between
the parties contains a clause
that provides that any
disputes between the parties
shall be referred to the
Regional centre for international Commercial Arbitration.

The procedure specified in the
parties agreement is as
specified in the Arbitration
and Conciliation Act which is
contained in the Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria.
Transport and Port
Management appointed Mrs
Funmi Roberts as its arbitrator, The Nigerian Ports
Authority appointed Mr.
Candide-Johnson SAN as its
arbitrator. The two Arbitrators
jointly appointed Mr. Supo
Shasore SAN as the third and
presiding arbitrator. After