{"id":1406,"date":"2026-07-14T16:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:44:31","slug":"high-court-strikes-out-suit-against-unity-bank-awards-%e2%82%a6200000-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=1406","title":{"rendered":"High Court Strikes Out Suit Against Unity Bank, Awards \u20a6200,000 Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Iwete Feargod<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A High Court sitting in Abraka has struck out a civil suit filed by <strong>Hon. Felix Erhomedafe<\/strong> against <strong>Unity Bank Plc<\/strong> after the claimant&#8217;s counsel repeatedly failed to appear in court to prosecute the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case, <strong>Suit No. HCA\/17\/2021<\/strong>, came up for hearing, but the claimant&#8217;s counsel was absent when the matter was called. Counsel for the defendant informed the court that the case had previously been adjourned several times due to the repeated absence of the claimant&#8217;s lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the claimant&#8217;s failure to diligently prosecute the suit, counsel for the defendant urged the court to strike out the matter. The defence also applied for <strong>\u20a6500,000<\/strong> in costs, arguing that the repeated adjournments had resulted in unnecessary court appearances and additional expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After considering the application, the presiding judge held that the claimant had failed to prosecute the case diligently and consequently struck out the suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the issue of costs, the court declined to award the full amount requested by the defence. Instead, the judge ordered the claimant to pay <strong>\u20a6200,000<\/strong> in costs to <strong>Unity Bank Plc<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ruling removes the case from the court&#8217;s cause list. Although a struck-out matter may be relisted upon a proper application, the award of costs serves as compensation to the successful party for the inconvenience and expenses incurred during the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judgment highlights the importance of diligently prosecuting court cases and complying with court schedules, as repeated absences by counsel may result in a matter being struck out and the payment of costs to the opposing party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Iwete Feargod A High Court sitting in Abraka has struck out a civil suit filed by Hon. Felix Erhomedafe against Unity Bank Plc after the claimant&#8217;s counsel repeatedly failed to appear in court to prosecute the matter. The case, Suit No. HCA\/17\/2021, came up for hearing, but the claimant&#8217;s counsel was absent when the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":13,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15],"tags":[31,25,26],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trendingnews","category-viewspoint","tag-abraka","tag-delsu","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}