Fidelity Bank Plc has already approached the court for an interpretation of the reported N225 billion judgement against it by the Supreme Court.
On Monday, it was reported that the apex court has asked the financial institution to pay a Nigerian company N225 billion as damages.
In a statement to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, the lender said the judgment debt arose from a legacy transaction between the defunct FSB International Bank and Sagecom Concepts Limited.
It explained that FSB gain a $3 million loan to G. Cappa Plc in 2002 and was secured with mortgage on a property located in Ikoyi, Lagos.
In the statement, the bank said G. Cappa defaulted on the repayment of the loan and in a bid to prevent FSB from selling the mortgaged property to repay the loan, G. Cappa commenced an action against FSB at the Federal High Court, Lagos, to stop the sale.
The Federal High Court in its judgment ruled that the FSB as legal mortgagor rightfully sold the leased interest in the property to Sagecom in 2011, but declined to order vacant possession of the property and directed the issue of vacant possession to the Lagos State High Court.
In the meantime, G. Cappa remained in possession of the property and kept collecting rents therefrom.
In 2011, Sagecom instituted an action against the bank and G. Cappa at the Lagos State High Court seeking damages against lender for breach of contract and for possession of the property.
The claim was for liquidated damages calculated as rentals on the several component apartments in the property plus interest on same over different time frames.
In 2018, the Lagos High Court awarded judgment in favour of Sagecom against G. Cappa and the bank which judgment was challenged at the Supreme Court.
The financial institution argued that by remaining in possession of the property and continuing to collect rents therefrom, G. Cappa orchestrated all the losses suffered by Sagecom, but having exhausted the appeal process, the bank said it was willing to settle the obligation.
“There are significant ambiguities in the judgment resulting in difficulties in calculating the actual financial liability to the G.Cappa and the bank which is about N14 billion from our computation based on the exchange rate as of 2005 when the incident and cause of action arose,” Fidelity Bank said in the statement.
To back this up, it cited the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Anibaba v Dana Airlines Limited delivered in January 2025, which clarified that foreign currency judgment debt must be converted to Naira at the exchange rate obtainable at the date of judgment of the trial court, which in this case was January 30, 2018.
“Even if the 2018 exchange rate supported by the Supreme Court is applied, the judgment debt will just be under N30.7 billion payable by G.Cappa Plc (who delayed delivery of possession of the apartments from 2005 till June 2018 when possession was eventually delivered) with contribution from the bank.
“Consequently, the bank has applied to the court for a clarification and inquiry into the proper interpretation of the judgment and the computation of the actual quantum properly and lawfully payable by G.Cappa and the bank.
“The court has accordingly ordered Sagecom to maintain status quo pending the determination of pending motions and restrained Sagecom and all persons from publishing any material in the media as the matter is still pending in court,” it stated.