P&ID Loses At UK Supreme Court; To Pay Nigeria’s £43m Fine

In a unanimous decision delivered by a five-member panel on Wednesday, the UK supreme court held that P&ID should pay the £43m award in pounds, the currency used by Nigeria to pay its lawyers in the case.

The justices in the panel are Robert Reed, Dame Simler, David Richards, Ben Stephens, and Patrick Hodge.

Delivering the judgment, the UK supreme court held that there are no reasons for the award costs to be awarded in any other currency aside from sterling since English solicitors charged in that currency and the disbursements were made by Nigeria in sterling.

The supreme court panel refused to investigate how Nigeria funded the legal costs after P&ID argued that Nigeria converted naira to sterling to meet the financial obligations to its English solicitors.

The supreme court rejected the argument of P&ID that if the award sum is paid in sterling, Nigeria “would gain a substantial windfall at its expense because the sterling sums which Nigeria paid to its solicitors were the equivalent of approximately 25 billion naira when they were paid whereas they are now the equivalent of 95 billion naira”.

Source: TheCable