Appeal Court Awards N2.5bn Damages Against Skye Bank For Breach Of Contract

The Federal Court of Appeal sitting in
Akure, Ondo State has awarded the sum of
N2.5billion as damages against Skye Bank
Nigeria Plc for breach of contract against
Tuns Farm Nigeria Plc, Osogbo.
In a judgement delivered yesterday, Justice
Denton West upheld the earlier judgement
of an Osun State High Court sitting in
Osogbo which had in March last year
ordered Skye Bank Nigeria Plc to pay
N2.5billion as damages to the farm.
The three-member panel of judges, while
dismissing the appeal filed by the Skye
Bank Nigeria Plc, also unanimously
averred that the lower court had the right to
award both special and general damages to
the appellant for breach of contract.
The Tuns Farm Nigeria Limited had dragged
an Osogbo branch of the Skye Bank Plc
before the court for disbursing the sum of
N300million out of the N2billion loan it
secured from CBN under a special loan
facility called Commercial Agric Credit
Scheme.
According to the plaintiff, efforts made for
the release of the balance of N1.7billion by
the bank did not yield any positive result as
the bank held that it had used the balance
to offset a loan previously obtained by the
farm.
An Osogbo High Court had last year ruled
that the Skye Bank Nigeria Plc erred in law
by the non-fulfilment of contractual
agreement entered into on a loan facility of
N2billion with the farm.
In his judgement, Justice Oyejide Falola
ruled that the bank exhibited poor
corporate governance and poor diligence in
handling the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
loan which was paid into the account of
Skye Bank Plc for disbursement to the bank
customer