The Relevance of Section 99 Sheriffs and Civil Process Act under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules

Abstract

Introduction

The Uniform¹ civil procedure rules became applicable to most states of Nigeria between 1987 and 1989 following its adoption by the different states. Though a few other states did not adopt the uniform rules, no High Court today, including the Federal High Court, is still applying the regime of the rules hitherto applicable by 1986. Some of the states that did not adopt the uniform rules are: Anambra/Enugu², and Lagos³, but these rules together with the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure Rules) made applicable by decree No. 23 1999 have common features with the uniform civil procedure rules.

Section 99 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act⁴ prescribes that the period specified in a writ of summons for service in another state, outside the originating state as the period within which a defendant is required to answer before the court to the writ of summons shall be not less than thirty days after service of the writ has been effected, or if a longer period is prescribed by the rules of the court within which the writ of summons is issued, not less than that longer period.

Under the uniform rules some High Courts have continued to apply this statutory provision against the service of writ of summons where the writ prescribes the entering of appearance within the eight days⁵ of the service of the writ. To circumvent this problem, some High Courts when issuing writs for service out of a state in another state now insert thirty days in place of eight days in the writ within which a defendant may enter appearance. Also, most counsel have taken objection under section 99 only in situations where a writ of summons is served without considering situations where other processes that require appearance are served.

The insistence by some courts that a writ of summons which prescribes less than thirty days within which a defendant may enter appearance must be set aside if the writ was served outside the originating state is a misunderstanding of the scope of section 99 in relation to the uniform rules.

This essay shall therefore review section 99 Sheriffs and Civil Process Act in relation to the uniform rules with a view to establishing the proper position of section 99 under our uniform rules.