LAGOS, NIGERIA — Honeywell Flour Mills PLC, one of Nigeria’s leading flour mills and a subsidiary of Flour Mills of Nigeria, has been awarded N72.2 billion in damages ($92.6 million) from Ecobank Nigeria Ltd. in a July 18 ruling from the Nigerian Federal High Court, according to The Guardian.
Honeywell Flour Mills sought damages after the bank froze the company’s assets, including its bank accounts, through an ex-parte order from the Federal High Court in 2015. The order halted Honeywell’s operations for several weeks, and the business said it was unable to fulfill its obligations to stakeholders, including paying suppliers, processing letters of credit and collecting payments from distributors.
Honeywell Flour Mills then applied for a discharge, and the court altered its order, allowing the company limited access to its accounts. The Court of Appeal overturned the ex-parte orders in 2016, and Honeywell was able to operate its accounts without restrictions. In its judgement, the Court of Appeal concluded that Ecobank’s request to freeze the assets should not have been granted in the first place.
Following a 2018 Supreme Court’s ruling affirming the Court of Appeal decision, Honeywell sought damages from the bank due to the losses the company said it suffered from the ex-parte orders.
Ecobank sought dismissal of the lawsuit, but Federal High Court Justice Mohammed Liman ruled that the court was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the bank had violated the law and caused Honeywell Flour Mills significant damage with the asset freeze.
