The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed by British aviation company, Aviation Services International Ltd (AHS), against Precision Aviation Handling Company Ltd (PAHCOL), now AHS Aviation Handling Services Nig. Ltd, and others over a Joint Venture Agreement.
In a leading judgment delivered by Justice Abang on Monday, the Court reaffirmed the primacy of Nigerian law in transactions substantially connected with Nigeria while faulting AHS for defaulting on the JVA between the parties.
Precision Support Services Ltd, Merit Oil Ltd and PAHCOL were the respondents in the appeal, with Chioma Linda Ekene-Okwunma, Esq., as their counsel, according to court documents seen by Nairametrics.
The AHS appeal arose from a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between AHS and PAHCOL concerning the proposed development of aviation ground-handling services.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by a three-member panel, the Court considered whether the trial court was right to hold that the failure to execute the contemplated Joint Venture Agreement rendered the transaction inchoate.
The appeal was consequently dismissed for want of merit. The judgment of the Federal High Court was affirmed, with costs of N1 million awarded in favour of the respondents.
Nairametrics, citing court verdicts, previously reported that the arrangement between AHS, PAHCOL and others contemplated the subsequent execution of a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA).
That agreement, however, was not executed to the latter, according to the court’s findings.
In 2023, the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu, terminated the parties’ arrangement and awarded N2 million in damages to Precision Support Services Ltd.
The trial court held, among other things, that the MoU had expired by effluxion of time on June 30, 2017, while the contemplated JVA remained inchoate because the parties never executed it.
It also found that AHS had abandoned the preliminary obligations contemplated by the parties and had acted contrary to applicable Nigerian law, including the statutory framework governing the importation of foreign currency into Nigeria.
The development adds to the list of court interventions in aviation-related disputes.
In 2026, the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos awarded N5.5 million in damages and legal costs against Dana Airline Limited in favour of Babajide Idowu, Esq., over the delay of his flight in 2018.
