ANAKWENZE V. ANEKE & ORS

• Pages: 798-807

ANAKWENZE V. ANEKE & ORS.

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798

ANAKWENZE V. ANEKE & ORS.

5

J.O. ANAKWENZE

V

10 LOUIS ANEKE & ORS.

APPELLANT

RESPONDENTS

SUIT NO. SC 90/1984

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

BELLO,

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J.S.C.

OBASEKI,

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UWAIS,

COKER,

KAWU,

7th June, 1985

J.S.C.

J.S.C.

J.S.C.

J.S.C.

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Practice and Procedure - Judgments - Court of Appeal - Inherent Power and

sanction of - Power to enforce its own orders and judgments - Power to

commit for contempt of - Constitutional law - Enforcement of judgment.

ISSUE:

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1. Whether the Court of Appeal is competent to execute its own judgment and

orders?

FACTS:

The Appellant - a legal practitioner refused to comply with an order of the Court

of Appeal to refund money paid out on behalf of his clients under a nullified High

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Court order. Meanwhile the Appellant filed an application in the Court of Appeal

to stay execution of the order on the false information that there was a pending ap-

plication for leave to appeal when there was no such application. Consequently,

the application for stay was withdrawn by the appellant. The Court of Appeal upon

an application filed by the Emene Community heard oral and affidavit evidence of

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the appellant's refusal to comply with their order, committed the Appellant to prison

for contempt of Court. He appealed to the Supreme Court on the ground that by

virtue of section 251(2) of the 1979 Constitution the decisions of Court of Appeal

are only enforceable by "all authorities and persons and by Courts with subordi-

nate jurisdiction" and that as the Court of Appeal was neither of these, it had no

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jurisdiction to enforce its order for the refund of the amount paid out by the High

Court by committing the appellant to prison for contempt. He submitted further

that since the Court of Appeal had already made the order and issued a certificate

that the refund of the High Court should recover the amount then it was the High

Court and not the Court of Appeal that ought to enforce it.

45 HELD:

1.

The general rule is that an authority which delegates its power does not divest

itself of the power.

2.

Therefore, it is not right to argue that the Court of Appeal, which in effect

delegated its power to the High Court, lacks the jurisdiction to enforce the order

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by itself.

3.

One of the authorities of a Court of Law is its competence to enforce

its

judgments. Consequently, other Courts, authorities, or persons unless

empowered by statutes or the Constitution creating the particular courts have

no jurisdiction to enforce the judgment and orders of the court.