Court dismisses P&ID appeal, upholds Nigeria’s £43m award
A UK Court of Appeal has dismissed Process & Industrial Development’s (P&ID) appeal regarding a previous judgment that halted the enforcement of its $11 billion award against Nigeria.
In a unanimous decision, Lead Judge Lord Justice Snowden allowed P&ID to appeal the judgment but ultimately dismissed it. The ruling was based on the issue of whether the lower court was correct in ordering P&ID to pay the £43 million legal costs in British pounds rather than naira.
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P&ID argued that Nigeria had funded its legal services by exchanging naira from its consolidated revenue fund. However, Judge Snowden agreed with Nigeria’s position that since the legal costs were invoiced and paid in sterling, the costs should be awarded in the same currency.
“In my judgment, therefore, the judge was right to accept Nigeria’s straightforward submission that because Nigeria had been invoiced and had incurred its liability to its solicitors in sterling and had paid those bills in sterling, the court ought to make its Costs Order in sterling,” Snowden ruled.
The decision upholds Nigeria’s £43 million award and rejects P&ID’s appeal on both counts.
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