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DUE PROCEDURE MUST BE FOLLOWED FOR CONTEMPT

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It is trite that contempt of Court is an office sui generis. An application for committal for any disobedience of an order of Court is a very serious matter as it involves in most cases an exceptional interference with the liberty of a subject and therefore when any antecedent process has to be put in motion every prescribed step and rule however technical should be carefully taken, observed and insisted upon. Any irregularity in the procedure for committed is a fundamental vice which vitiates the entire application.

– P.O. Elechi, JCA. Mofunanya v. Nwadiogbu (2017) – CA/E/282/2009

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COURT MUST BE CAREFUL IN ITS COMMITTAL FOR CONTEMPT – SOME DECIDED CASES

✓ In the case of IZUORA V. QUEEN 13 WACA 313 the Appellant who was a legal practitioner had concluded arguments in a divorce matter and he sought for permission to be absent on the day judgment was to be delivered. The permission was granted by the Judge but it was withdrawn when Counsel on the other side also sought to be excused. For reasons that are not quite clear, the Appellant failed to appear before the Court on the day judgment was to be delivered. The learned Trial Judge convicted him and sentenced him for contempt of Court. In allowing his appeal and setting aside the conviction and sentence, the Court decided that not every act of discourtesy or breach of Counsel’s duty to clients would amount to contempt capable of being summarily punished, without much ado or brevi manu.

✓ In AGBACHOM V. THE STATE (1970) 1 ALL NLR 71 AT 80, the learned Trial Judge punished for contempt a party to an action before him and who had deposed to a fact in an affidavit in support of an application seeking for the transfer of the matter to another Judge. That paragraph of the affidavit stated that the learned Judge had accepted a part payment of a debt which was owed to him when he was a legal practitioner by one of the parties in the instant matter. After referring to Lord Denning in R. V. METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER (1968) 2 ALL ER 319 at 320 Lord Goddard in SHAMDASANI V. KING EMPEROR (1945) AC 264 the Supreme emphasized that a Court must be careful in the exercise of its powers to punish for contempt. The Court emphasized that the power must be used sparingly and only in serious cases.

✓ In BOYO V. A.G. MID-WEST STATE (1971) 1 ALL NLR 343 AT 352, the Supreme Court per Ademola, CJN of 354 held that generally, contempt in the face of the Court cannot be dealt with efficiently except immediately by the very judicial officer in whose presence the offence was committed and where the offence should be dealt with summarily such a hearing must be conducted in accordance with the cardinal principle of fair process. It was also held that the case of criminal contempt capable of being punished summarily must be one in which the facts surrounding the alleged contempt are so notorious as to be virtually incontestable. This means that scrupulous care must be brought to bear on the facts and circumstances making sure that the case is very clear and beyond reasonable doubt.

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CONTEMPT OF COURT IS TO PROTECT DIGNITY OF THE COURT

Contempt of court may be described as any act or conduct which interferes with the course of justice and tends to bring the authority and administration of law into disrespect. The twin elements of contempt of court are, therefore, interference and disrespect. The aim of the law of contempt of court, therefore, is to protect the dignity of court from any conduct that tends to obstruct or interfere with the administration of justice.

– Achike JCA. Adeyemi v. Edigin (1990)

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LAW OF CONTEMPT IS FOR UPHOLDING THE EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

The principles enshrined in the law of contempt are there to hold and ensure the effective administration of justice. They are the means by which the law vindicates the public interest in the administration of justice. It is also settled that the law of contempt does not exist for the sake of the personal aggrandizement of the judge nor is it there to protect the private rights of parties or litigants.

– Kekere-Ekun, JCA. Alechenu v. AG Benue (2011) – CA/J/220/2002

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INFERIOR COURT SHOULD NOT TRY CONTEMPT OF COURT

From the foregoing, I am unable to hold that the extra-judicial vituperative exchanges between the appellant and the respondent in the peculiar circumstances of this case amounted to contempt of court. On the contrary I think that the invocation of the power of contempt in the instant case bordered on abuse of judicial authority. It is clearly improper and will expose the administration of justice to ridicule if a magistrate or a presiding officer of an inferior court were invested with such extraordinary powers to provoke unnecessary extra-judicial verbal exchanges with counsel or a member of the public and yet invoke against him the lethal and drastic power to punish for contempt.

– Achike JCA. Adeyemi v. Edigin (1990)

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CONTEMPT: IN FACIE CURIAE VS EX FACIE CURIAE

Here, I take liberty to restate that there are two broad classifications of contempt: that committed in facie curiae and that committed ex facie curiae. In the latter category, a charge and a plea are necessary and the accused is entitled to a fair hearing of the case against him.

– Chima Centus Nweze, J.S.C. Independent National Electoral Commission & Anor v. Ejike Oguebego & Ors (2017)

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EXCEPTIONS TO WHEN A PARTY IN CONTEMPT MAY NOT BE HEARD

In First African Trust Bank Limited and Anor v. Basil O. Ezegbu and Anor (supra) at 151 Karibi Whyte, JSC, spoke so incisively, about these exceptions thus: “In my respectful opinion, the rule precluding hearing a contemnor before the Court is founded on principle. To every rule there are always exceptions. The exceptions to the general rule that a party in contempt may not be heard as distilled from the authorities referred to (supra) are:
(1) Where the party is seeking for leave to appeal against the order of which he is in contempt;
(2) Where the opposition to the order is one on the ground of lack of jurisdiction;
(3) Where the contemnor is seeking to be heard in defence of the Order and
(4) Where it can be shown that there were certain procedural irregularities in making of the orders which irregularities make the order unsustainable.

– Chima Centus Nweze, J.S.C. Independent National Electoral Commission & Anor v. Ejike Oguebego & Ors (2017)

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