OLAGUNJU, JCA (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The appeal turns on the correct procedure for entering a default judgment at the threshold of a trial which left in its trail procedural blunders in which the parties and the court frolicked about in relays with riotous abandon. In order to come to grips with the technical intricacies of the appeal, it is necessary to give a summary of the material facts. In the action commenced in the High Courtof Enugu State, the respondent, as the plaintiff, sued the appellant, as the defendant, seeking in her amended statement of claim the following reliefs: “(i) A declaration that the defendant was negligent in the handling of the business relationship between the plaintiff and the Norwagian Tale of Norway.
A declaration that the failure by the defendant to transmit the sum of N165,317.36 meant for the Norwagian Tale is in breach of the contractual relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant. An order directing the defendant to refund to the…