In a unanimous decision, the Lead Judge, Lord Justice Snowden, permitted P&ID to appeal the judgment but dismissed the appeal.
The United Kingdom Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), upholding a £43 million award to Nigeria in a case involving a failed gas processing and supply agreement. This significant development marks the end of a prolonged legal dispute that began in 2010 and involved allegations of bribery and corruption.
In its ruling, the UK Court of Appeal rejected P&ID’s appeal, asserting that the agreement was procured through corruption and therefore unenforceable under English law. This decision aligns with an earlier ruling by the High Court in 2020, which found P&ID guilty of seeking to deceive the Nigerian government through its misrepresentation of key facts related to the agreement.
In a copy of the judgment published on the UK judiciary website, one of the issues raised in the P&ID appeal bordered on whether the lower court was wrong to order the £43 million legal cost to be paid in British pound sterling and not in naira.
The company argued that Nigeria funded its legal services by exchanging naira from its consolidated revenue fund.
The second issue is whether the Judge was right to order P&ID to pay Nigeria’s costs in sterling.
Snowden, the lead judge, accepted the arguments of Nigeria that since the legal cost was paid in sterling, the cost order should be paid in the same currency.
“In my judgment, therefore, the judge was right to accept Nigeria’s straightforward submission that because Nigeria had been invoiced and had incurred its liability to its solicitors in sterling and had paid those bills in sterling, the court ought to make its Costs Order in sterling,” the judge ruled.
He therefore permitted P&ID to appeal but would dismiss the appeal.
