Whether the court will allow a party suffer as a result of the mistakes/omissions occasioned by the Registry staff

"But, the most relevant question one would pose here is: should this Court allow an unsuspecting litigant to suffer as a result of the mistakes/omissions occasioned by the Registry staff? Certainly, no!

I repeat and adopt what Olatawura, JSC (of blessed memory) said in the case of Cooperative and Commercial Bank Plc v. Attorney-General Anambra State & Anor (1992) 8 NWLR (Pt.261) 528 at p 561 ; that: "It will be contrary to all principles to allow litigants to suffer the mistake of the court Registry. In other words, the Court will not visit the "sin" of the Court's Registry, on a litigant or his counsel, unless, it was shown that the litigant and/or his counsel was a party thereto or had full knowledge of the "sin" or mistake and encouraged or condoned the said act. Therefore, on the authorities, justice, equity, fairness and good conscience, must persuade me, to hold further, that this appeal deserves to succeed and it in fact does."

As I have given a glimpse of some of the facts relied upon by the applicants above, I am of the opinion that once a party, such as the applicants herein, has performed creditably his own portion of responsibility of what he is required by the law to fulfill, in instituting an action, he should not be made to suffer the failure, blunders, or omissions of the Court Registry. It will be inequitable to do so.

By our law and practice, once a prospective party has properly made his claim as required by law and delivered same in the Registry, what is left to be done such as sorting out of the processes, giving them identification numbers for ease of reference; distributing such processes to the various Justices is the domestic responsibility of the Registry. The party has no more say on it except what the court/Registry requires of him to do. Thus, it will be unconscionable and against the interest of Justice to penalize such a party for such errors, lapses, mistakes or accidental slips or omissions by administrative or clerical functions of the Registry."

Per MUHAMMAD, J.S.C in Ede v. Mba (2011) 18 NWLR (Pt.1278) 236