Mr. Nathaniel Adewole v C.s.s. Bookshops Limited Anor

• Judge: Hon. Justice J. D. Peters
• Judgment Date: 22 September 2016
• Respondent: C.s.s. Bookshops Limited Anor
• Appellant: Mr. Nathaniel Adewole
• Docket Number: NICN/LA/614/2014
• Counsel: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:
• Court: National Industrial Court (Nigeria)

1. Introduction
& Claims

On
22/12/14, the Claimant filed his Form 1 and
sought the following reliefs against the Defendants -



1. The sum of Eight Hundred and
Sixty-three Thousand and Fifty Naira (=N=863,050.00)
only being unpaid monthly salaries, allowances and one month salary in lieu of notice from 20th day
of October, 2009 to 31st day of March, 2014.

2. Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira
(=N=250,000.00) being Solicitors' fees.



The
Claimant's Form 1 was accompanied by
statement of facts, Claimant's statement on oath, Verifying Affidavit and
copies of documents to be relied on at trial.



2. Counter
claims

The
Defendant reacted by filing a statement of defence on 18/2/15 and counter
claimed as follows -



1. A Declaration that the
Defendants/Counter-Claimants are not indebted to the Claimant/Defendant to the Counterclaim in the sum of
=N=863,050.00 or any sum whatsoever.

2. Payment of the sum of =N=241 ,808.76
being the value of the stock of the 1st Defendant/Counter-Claimant
which the Claimant/Defendant to the Counter-Claim sold on behalf of the 1st
Defendant/Counter-Claimant but failed to remit to it.

3. Interest on the said sum of N241,808.76
at the rate of 21% per annum from 1st April 2014 until
judgment and thereafter at the post judgment rate of 10% per annum until the debt is fully liquidated.

4. Cost of N350,000 being the Solicitors’ professional
fee for this action.



3. Case
of the Claimant

The
trial of this case commenced on 2/3/16 when the Claimant testified as CW1. Witness adopted his written
deposition dated 22/12/14 as his evidence in chief and tendered 14 documents.
The documents were admitted as exhibits and marked as Exh. C1-Exh. C14. The case
of the Claimant as gathered from his pleadings is that he was employed by the
1st Defendant by a letter dated 20/10/09 and placed him on probation as Senior
Sales Executive; that his appointment was confirmed on 1/11/11 by the 1st
Defendants letter dated 31/10/11; that the 2nd Defendant is the
Managing Director and the alter ego of the 1st Defendant; that the 2nd
Defendant runs and determines the day to day affairs of the 1st Defendant;
that he served the company meritoriously, loyally and unblemished from 20/10/09
– 31/3/14 before the company served him with Letter of Termination dated 31/5/14.
Claimant further averred that the 1st and 2nd Defendants
did not pay him one month salary in lieu of Notice in compliance with my letter
of employment and company employees conditions of service/handbook policy; that
as at 31/3/14 the company was owing him outstanding unpaid salaries, allowances
and one month salary in lieu of notice totaling =N=863,050.00 (Eight Hundred
and Sixty-Three Thousand and Fifty Naira) only and that the sum of N863,050.00 (Eight
Hundred and Sixty-Three Thousand and Fifty Naira) only being my outstanding
salaries, Allowances and one month salary in lieu of the notice is outstanding
and unpaid to him by the Defendants.



Under
cross examination, the witness testified that Exh. C1 and Exh. C9 govern his employment with the 1st
Defendant; that his key resource area is the Sales I made while with the 1st
Defendant; that by Exh. C1 he was to
be confirmed after 6 months of probation but by Exh. C 2 he was confirmed after 2 years; that occasionally he met
the target set out in Exhibit C3; that
even when he met the target his salary was not paid fully; that he complained
as necessary to his Line Manager – Mr Akpaida Olugbenga after every trip in
writing and that he wrote a memo to Mr. Akpaida dated 18/9/13. Witness added
that in addition to the sum stated in Exhibit
C14, he was also entitled to 2% commission on sales made by him; that the
practice at the 1st Defendant is that as a Sales Executive he was allowed to sell
books at 20% discount; that he is entitled to outstation allowance of =N=4,000.00
per day; that he has not paid the outstanding debt of =N=241,808.00 because the
Defendants have not paid money owed to him; that his pension was not being
paid; that he did not check whether pension remittances were made or not and
that he has not complained to Pension Commission before instituting this
action.



4. Case
of the Defendants

The
Defendant opened its defence on 2/3/16. Its sole witness was one Johnson Abdul
who testified as DW1. DW1 adopted his
witness deposition dated 18/2/16 as his evidence in chief and tendered a
document as exhibit. same was admitted and marked as Exh. D1. The case of the Defendants is that the Claimant is not
entitled to the sum of =N=863,050.00 as
it was not part of his terms of employment with the 1st
Defendant; that the bulk of the claim of the Claimant being a purported out of
station allowance was not applicable to him as same was not part of his
entitlements; that though the Claimant was entitled to a sum of =N=101,716.67
as unpaid salary as specified in his letter of termination, same was contingent
on his recovery of trade debts of =N=241,808.76 incurred by the Claimant and
that the said sum of =N=241,808.76...