Court orders company to pay retired staff member $3,000 monthly till his death, $325,183 as retirement benefit

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has ordered a company, Intels Nigeria Limited, to pay one of its former staff members the sum of $3,000 every month till his death while also ordering the payment of $325,183.5 as his retirement benefit.

The trial judge, Port Harcourt judicial division, Justice Faustina Kola-Olalere, ordered Intels Nigeria Ltd to pay the former staff member, Chief Patrick Udoh, the sum of $325,183.5 as retirement benefit from 2012 till September 2021 within 30 days.

Justice Kola-Olalere further directed the firm to continue to pay Chief Udoh the sum of $3000 monthly with effect from October 2021 as long as he’s alive and as long as the firm continues to operate in Nigeria.

The court held that the exhibit tendered by Chief Patrick Udoh is a contractual undertaking between him and the firm which is binding on the parties and can be legally enforced.

From facts, Chief Patrick Udoh had pleaded that he served the firm for about 20 years and was compulsorily retired from the services with a condition that his former boss would ensure that the firm would be paying him the sum of $3,000 monthly as long as firm continues to be in operation in Nigeria.

He added that the firm complied with the undertaking and stopped the payment after 18 years, urging the court to grant the reliefs sought.

In defence, the firm maintained that Chief Udoh’s former boss wrote the letter of undertaking in his personal capacity to assist the claimant following the termination of his employment with Intel Services Limited and not as an officer or their agent.

The defence team urged the court to give a plain interpretation to the agreement and to dismiss the claim for lacking merit and to strike out the matter for being statute-barred, and the court lack the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Kola-Olalere affirmed the jurisdiction of the court and held that the case is not statute-barred that the injury being complained of is a continuous one.

The court held that the monthly sum of $3000 being claimed against the firm by Chief Udoh is his retirement income/fund, which he lives on after the determination of his employment by the firm cannot be and it is not limited by Limitation Law of Rivers State.

Consequently, the court held that Exhibit C.1 is a contractual agreement between the defendants (the employers) and their employee (the claimant), which is binding on the parties and that the defendants rightly complied with these undertakings from January 1996 to September 2012 (a period of almost 18 years).

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Court orders company to pay retired staff member $3,000 monthly till his death, $325,183 as retirement benefit

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