How man lost negligence suit against UPS

When Panvil Emmanuel Neple failed to receive documents required to obtain a Canadian student visa for his studies, he filed a negligence of tort’s suit against United Parcel Service Nigeria Limited (UPS) before an FCT High Court.

Neple told the court that on the 14th, December 2012, he and Peter Neple (his father) paid the sum of N2, 850.00 to UPS for a return delivery of documents pertaining to him at the Canadian Embassy. He maintained that UPS failed and/ or neglected to deliver the return letter of the Canadian Embassy until he went to their office on the 11th, January 2013, only to discover that they were still in custody of his letter.

Aggrieved that the nondelivery of said letter amounts to a breach of duty of care owed by the UPS, whose negligence prevented Neple from obtaining a study visa, the Neples prayed the court to order UPS refund the sum of $25,850.00 (TwentyFive Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty USD) to cover the schools fees paid and lost due to negligence from the currier service.

They also prayed that UPS be made to refund N600,000.00 (Six Hundred Thousand Naira) being the air fare of Neple, N5 million in damages for negligence, and N2 million for breach of contract to promptly deliver the mail.

UPS however, told the court that their dispatch rider order Ojobo Barnabas Adah, visited the Neples office on the 21st December, 2012 and discovered that the office was under lock and key.

“He then dropped the letter with the security man in the hope that the Plaintiffs (the Neples) would get it. He also recounted how he got there on the 24th December to cross check that it had been delivered, only for the security man to tell him that he was also going on Christmas Vacation hence, he returned the letter to the Defendant.”

“Still in an effort to ensure that the Plaintiff got hold of the letter, Adah left his phone number and a note, indicating that there is a parcel with the defendant (UPS) which can be picked from Defendant’s office,” the Court record said.

The trial judge, Justice Olasumbo Goodluck, in her judgment held that the plaintiffs’ sole issue for determination was “whether the defendant owed the plaintiffs a duty of care and if this is answered in the affirmative, whether the plaintiffs are entitled to damages arising from the defendant’s failure to exercise care in handling of the plaintiffs’ letter.”

She said UPS’ counsel in his written address dated 8th April,