Order 62 — Transfer and Consolidation

Where the Court has in the exercise of the powers conferred by Section 24(2) of the Act directed that any cause or matter be transferred to the Federal High Court, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or the High Court of a State, the Court shall make an Order to that effect and shall specify in the order the High Court to which the cause or matter is transferred.

The Registrar shall forthwith send a certified copy of the order made under rule 1 of this Order to the Chief Registrar of the High Court named in the order together with certified copies of all processes and record of proceedings of the Court relating to the cause or matter in question.

(1) Where in exercise of the powers conferred by section 24(3) of the Act any cause or matter has been transferred to the Court from the Federal High Court, High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or the High Court of a State, the Registrar shall on receipt of the order making the transfer enter such cause or matter in the Order Book and notify the parties concerned and shall henceforth, subject to any directions that may be given in any particular case by the President of the Court, or, as the case may be, the Presiding Judge, or, in the absence of the Presiding Judge, another Judge of the Court, treat the cause or matter as if it had been originally filed in the Court in accordance with these Rules, as may be appropriate.

(2) Where any matter is transferred to the Court by the Federal High Court, or the High Court of a State or the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja pursuant to sub-section 24(3) of the Act or similar provision in the statute establishing the said High Court or as may be ordered by a Judge of the High Court, the case file shall be accepted in the appropriate Registry of the Court and referred to the President of the Court for assignment.

(3) Upon the assignment of a transferred case, the Registrar shall issue Hearing Notices to all the parties to participate in the proceedings.

(4) Where a matter is transferred to the Court pursuant to sub-section 24(3) of the Act, the parties shall not pay new filing fees; except a party or party’s counsel is filing a fresh and new process which was not part of the transferred processes.

(1) In a matter praying the Court to make a reference or state a case on a point of law for the opinion of the Court of Appeal, the Court may ask the counsel to the parties in the matter to file Written Addresses.

(2) Consequent on the adoption of the Written Addresses, the Court may give its ruling accordingly.

(3) Where the ruling of the Court is as to reference of a question of law under the Constitution, the Court shall fill in a Reference Form the details of the matter and sign same.

(4) Where the ruling of the Court is as to Case stated, the Court shall fill and sign a Case Stated Form.

(5) Where the Court has complied with either of the provisions of sub-rule (3) or (4) of this rule, the Court shall compile the Written Addresses of the Counsel, its rulings and the appropriate Form and all other documents relevant to the matter and transmit same to the Court of Appeal for its opinion.

(6) Where the matter has been transmitted to the Court of Appeal, the matter shall be adjourned sine die.

When the Court of Appeal transmits its opinion or directive to the Court, the Court shall deal with the matter in accordance with the opinion or directive therein.

Where the Court of Appeal rules that the Court has no jurisdiction, the matter shall be disposed of as may be ordered or directed by the Court of Appeal.

Notwithstanding anything contained in these Rules, a cause or matter may before evidence is taken, and at the request of either party to the suit be transferred by the President of the Court to another Judge of the Court sitting in any other Division.

The President of the Court may re-assign any cause or matter pending before any Judge to another Judge of the Court to be heard in any other Division of the Court than where the cause or matter was being heard.

If for any reason a Judge hearing a cause or matter, and who has taken any step in the proceedings, considers it necessary, either on his own or upon the application of any of the parties to the proceedings, to have the cause or matter transferred to another Judge or Division, the Judge shall refer the cause or matter to the President of the Court who may direct that the matter be transferred to the appropriate Judge or Division in accordance with these Rules.

Where a Judge having a part-heard matter in a particular Judicial Division is transferred to another Judicial Division:
(1) If the Claimant has not closed the Claimant’s case, an application may be made to the President of the Court by any of the parties requesting that the matter be assigned to another Judge in that particular Judicial Division where the matter is being heard, for the matter to be heard de novo;
(2) If the Claimant has closed the Claimant’s case, the President of the Court may by fiat direct the Judge hearing the matter to continue the matter to conclusion in the Judge’s former Judicial Division, provided that such matter shall be concluded not later than 3 months from the date the fiat was issued.
(3) Where the matter is part-heard but only for the parties to adopt their Written Addresses, the President of the Court may by fiat direct the trial Judge to fix a date for hearing and adoption of the Written Addresses and adjourn for judgment.
(4) Where such a matter is not concluded within the time limited by the fiat, subject to agreement between the parties, the President of the Court may where the interest of justice demands, direct that the case be heard in the Judicial Division to which the Judge has been transferred. The directive of the President of the Court on the issue of transfer of the cause or matter shall be final.
(5) The parties in agreement may apply to the Judge taking over the matter for adoption of the proceedings and continue with the matter where the transferred Judge stopped.

(1) The party(ies) seeking or desiring transfer of the cause or matter to the Judicial Division to which the trial Judge is transferred, shall apply in writing to the President and transmit copies of the application to the trial Judge and counsel to the other party(ies).

(2) On receipt of copies of the application, counsel to the other party(ies) shall within seven (7) days respond to the request by writing to the President of the Court, copying the trial Judge handling the matter as well as counsel to the applicant.

(3) Upon receipt of the response of the counsel to the other party (ies), the President of the Court may after due consideration and in the interest of justice, issue a fiat directing how and where the case would be heard to conclusion. The decision of the President of the Court thereon shall be final.

(1) Where a Judge has heard a matter to conclusion and adjourned for judgment and the Judge has been transferred to a new Judicial Division, before the date fixed for the delivery of the judgment, the judgment may be delivered in the new Judicial Division.

(2) Where a Judge has heard a matter to conclusion and adjourned for judgment and he has been transferred to a new Judicial Division, the transferred Judge may with the approval of the President of the Court, request another Judge resident in the transferred Judge’s former Judicial Division to deliver the signed judgment on behalf of the transferred Judge.

(1) Where a transferor Court has made an Order and the transferee Court is of the view that the Order made by the transferor Court is valid and appropriate in the circumstance, the transferee Court will be at liberty to adopt it and adopt it expressly in writing.

(2) Exhibits already on record from the transferor Court may be allowed to remain and subject to the discretion of the Court may be re-classified to reflect the nomenclature of the transferee Court.

On receipt by the Court of the relevant documents and process on transfer of a cause or a matter, the Registrar shall notify the party who applied for the transfer, or where the transfer was not made on the application of any party, the Claimant to attend at the Registry and pay the fees for filing the documents, if any, and such payment shall be without prejudice to the question of how the costs shall ultimately be borne.

Such notification shall be effected by serving a notice on the party concerned, or at an address for service given by such party in the application or at the Court that made the transfer.

The Registrar shall on payment of the prescribed fees, order:
(a) the claimant(s) to within seven (7) days ensure that all the processes transmitted comply with Order 3 of these Rules;
(b) the Defendants(s) to ensure that within seven (7) days after service of the Claimant’s processes, all the Court processes filed before the transfer, are in line with Order 4 of these Rules.

(1) The Court may on application consolidate several actions pending before it, where it appears that the issues are the same in all the actions, and can therefore be properly tried and determined at the same time.

(2) The Court may suo motu consolidate several actions pending before it, where it is of the opinion that the parties in the matter are the same.

Where actions arising from the same cause are pending before different Judges, a party desiring consolidation shall apply to the President for a transfer of the matter to a Judge before whom one or more of the actions are pending.

An order to consolidate may be made where two or more actions are pending between the same Claimant and the same Defendant or between the same Claimant and different Defendants or between different Claimants and the same Defendant or between different Claimants and different Defendants.
Provided that where the same Claimant brings actions against different Defendants, they will not be consolidated without the consent of all parties unless the issues to be tried are identical.

Applications for consolidation may be made by summons, or they may be made in Court by motion on notice.

Where an Order for consolidation has been made, it shall be drawn up at the expense of the party or parties who applied for consolidation and shall be recorded in the Order Book.

Where different claimants are suing the same Defendants and the claims are the same, the Court may direct consolidation of the matters.

The Court may suo motu order that consolidation of cases be made after hearing from the counsel in the matter.
Provided that for cases to be consolidated parties must have joined issues and pleadings concluded in line with Orders 3 and 15 of the Rules of the Court.

In any matter before the Court where there are multiple applications concerning the same subject matter, the Court may order that such applications be heard together and a single ruling be delivered thereon.