THE STATE AND FEDERAL HIGH COURTS’ JURISDICTION OVERBANKER-CUSTOMER DISPUTE FROM THE PRISM OF DECIDEDCASES: WHITHER THE MAGISTRATE COURT’S JURISDICTION

Abstract

The Magistrate Court Law of most States in Nigeria, (including Oyo State) gives them
jurisdiction over tortious acts of which detinue is one. Thus, where a bank customer,
mistakenly makes an intra or interbank transfers to a wrong account whereof the money is
withheld by the bank, and the withheld amount is within the monetary jurisdiction of the
Magistrate Court, the customer, usually brings an action in detinue for the bank to release the
money to him/her. This is usually done notwithstanding that both the Supreme Court of
Nigeria (SCN) and Court of Appeal (CA) have held that the State and Federal High Courts’
have concurrent jurisdiction over banker-customer disputes. This paper, adopts desk-based
method in interrogating the jurisdiction of the Magistrate Court of Oyo State under the Oyo
State Magistrate Court Law, 2011 vis-à-vis the jurisdiction of the State and Federal High
Courts over banker-customer dispute based on decided cases to determine whether there is
any conflict. It argues that the cases in which the SCN and CA have held that the State and
Federal High Courts have and exercises concurrent jurisdiction over banker-customer
disputes, were decided without reference to the jurisdiction of other equally competent courts
i-ncluding the Magistrate Court of Oyo State (and other States as well). It found that there is
not jurisdictional conflict between these courts in relation to banker-customer disputes but
symbiotic. The paper makes vital recommendations before concluding.