Capital Oil Plc, a limited liability company, has addressed a letter to Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his firm, Capital Oil and Gas Industries, requesting that they pay a consent judgment payment of N100 million.
Capital Oil Plc had filed a N1 billion suit against Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his company, Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, in 2008 for an alleged unlawful use of a portion of its name “CAPITAL OIL,” and that despite repeated pleas and warnings from the plaintiff, as well as a directive from the Corporate Affairs Commission, the defendants did not desist.
As co-defendants, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) was added.
In a statement of claim filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos by a Lagos lawyer, Chioma Okwuanyi, Capital Oil Plc stated that it became aware of the existence of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd. when correspondences meant for the company were delivered to it and that upon inquiry, it discovered that the company engages in the business of dealing in petroleum products which is the same line of its business.
The plaintiff (Capital Oil) notified Corporate Affairs Commission the error in registering Capital Oil and Gas industries Ltd. Thereafter CAC directed the company to change its name within six weeks, but the defendant refused to do so.
When the confusion between the two companies became unbearable, the plaintiff (Capital Oil Plc) dragged Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his company Capital Oil and Gas industries Plc to court.
The suit was later settled by a term of settlement filed before the court and entered as consent judgement, whereby Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his company Capital Oil and Gas industries agreed to pay and indeed paid N100 million to the plaintiff to remove Capital from its name.
However, the money was repaid once it was determined that the Capital Oil firm’s board of directors was not carried along in the alleged settlement that the company accepted.
Following that, Capital Oil and Gas Industries sought a court order compelling the plaintiff to enforce the said consent judgment, but the presiding judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, absolved the plaintiff of any breach of the consent judgement, stating that because the defendant accepted the money refunded by the plaintiff, the judgement was repudiated.
Following that, the defendants agreed to settle for N230 million, but they refused to make any payment.
Sometime in 2013, the plaintiff received several calls from its clients who demanded to know how it had been so much engrossed in huge indebtedness that led to the take over of the management of the company by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria AMCON.
This embarrassed the plaintiff and tore its good will into shreds, as the company taken over by AMCON was Capital Oil and Gas industries and not Capital Oil Plc.
Thereafter, the Plaintiff file a suit seeking an order to restrain Chief Ifeanyi Ubah from using the name ‘Capital Oil.’
By judgement of Justice M B. Idris, the argument of Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his company was upheld, stating that the consent judgement was still valid and subsisting.
Capital Oil, dissatisfied with the said judgement, appealed to the court of Appeal.
The court of Appeal, while delivering its judgement dated 19th May 2021 upheld the judgement of the lower court and found the judgement of Justice M. B. Idris to be valid and subsisting.
Upon the delivery of the judgement of the court of Appeal, the Capital Oil company instructed its solicitors to write a letter to Chief Ifeanyi Ubah and his company demanding the payment of the N100 million judgement sum.
