CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
One of the problems facing modern society today is the complexities of commercial and business transactions and the ever changing and/or dynamic nature of banking and other financial systems and their legal rule. Issues in banking and insurance transactions, affects not only a good number of working lives but also the society at large in several ways. This therefore makes the law governing banking and insurance business and/or transaction critical as it establish not only the legal basis in which people fit in the business world but also foundation upon which the law, economic policies, and society interact in the changing commercial and industrial society. This work focuses on an appraisal of the legal implications of Garnishee proceedings in the Nigerian banking system. In doing this we shall concern ourselves with the rudiment of banking law and shall pick out the central theme and integrate it into a wider, commercial, social and theoretical context.
Garnishee proceedings, is an aspect of legal jurisprudence for the execution of money judgment that is sui generis, in a class of its own. Here, the judgment creditor in order to enjoy the fruit of his judgment applies to the court for an order Nisi which the court will make having being satisfied in the affidavit in support of the application. This work tends to bring to the fore the meaning of garnishee proceedings and the legal implication on banking business as well as other third-parties.
The term “Garnishee” denotes a person or an institution example a bank, that is either indebted to or is baited for another, whose property has been subjected to garnishment. A judicial proceeding in which a creditor or (potential creditor) asks the court to order a third-party who is indebted to or is Baileys for the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor’s property (such as wages or bank account), held by the third-party. (Nze Augustine N.) Ganishee is used to refer to a person or an institution (bank) that is indebted to or bailed to another, whose property has been subjected to garnishment[1]. A Ganishee order is an order of the court, obtained by a judgment creditor, to be attached to the money of a judgment debtor which is in the hands of a third-party (bank), with the effect that a third-party is prevented from paying the money so attached to anybody, but to hold it as a custodian for the court until the court gives directives as to how the money is to be applied[2]. Ganishee proceeding therefore, is a process of enforcing a money judgment by the seizures or attached of the debt due to or accruing for the judgment debtor which form part of the property in the hands of a third-party in whose hand the property of the creditor is to pay direct to the judgment creditor the debt due to accruing to him to the judgment debtor or as much as it may be sufficient to satisfy the judgment and the cost of the Ganishee proceedings[3].
[1] Bryan Garner, “Black Law Dictionary” 9th Edn. West Publishing Comp. 2009. Pg. 1830
[2] Dr. Jake Otu Enyia “An Overview of the Nature and Legal Effect of Banking Contact in Nigeria”.
Publication of the Faculty of Law Journal, 2013-15, Pg. 323.
[3] Dr. Jake Otu Enyia “An Overview of the Nature and Legal Effect on Banking Contract in Nigeria:
Publication of the Faculty of Law Journal, 2013-15. Pg. 323.