LEGAL PRINCIPLE: CIVIL PROCEDURE — Default Judgment — Unliquidated Damages — Inapplicability of Order 24 Rule 11 to Claims for Unliquidated Pecuniary Damages

"Having now held that the claim in issue is one for unliquidated damages, the next question must be whether the court below was right in setting aside the default judgment of the trial court over the unliquidated pecuniary damages claimed against the respondent without taking evidence on the question of damages. As already pointed out, the provisions of Order 24 rules 2 and 4 of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules govern, inter alia, actions in liquidated and unliquidated damages respectively. It seems to me clear, having regards to the express provisions of Order 24 rule 11 of the relevant Rules of court, that the appellant's action cannot be covered thereunder. This is because by the unambiguous wordings of Order 24 rule 11 under which the appellant obtained his summary and final judgment in default of defence, its applicability is expressly confined or made subject to the qualification that actions therein covered must be other than those for which specific provisions have already been made in the proceeding Rules of the said Order 24 rule 11. The appellant's claim for unliquidated pecuniary damages having been fully provided for by the provisions of Order 24 rule 4 which precede those of Order 24 rule 11, ibid, cannot, therefore come within the purview of the provisions of the said Order 24 rule 11."