The Supreme Court today handed down judgment in favour of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (“FRN”), dismissing the appeal of Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (“P&ID”) on the issue as to the currency in which the FRN is entitled to recover its costs: see [2025] UKSC 36.
FRN successfully set aside the c. US $11bn arbitration awards against it following an eight week trial in 2023 on the grounds that those awards had been obtained by P&ID’s fraud and were contrary to public policy. P&ID was ordered by the trial judge to pay FRN its costs of the proceedings, subject to assessment if not agreed. P&ID argued that the appropriate currency for the assessment and payment of such costs was naira, as it could be presumed that FRN took naira from its central government funds and converted it into sterling to pay for its solicitors’ bills; further, any costs award received would likely be converted to naira. Given that the value of the naira had fallen significantly against other currencies, including sterling, over the course of the proceedings, P&ID contended that an award in sterling would give FRN a substantial windfall. FRN argued that the costs award should be in sterling as it instructed English solicitors, in relation to litigation in England, was invoiced in sterling and had paid all invoices in sterling.
The trial judge ordered that FRN should be entitled to have its costs assessed and paid in sterling, together with an interim payment of £20m. This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal and has now been upheld by the Supreme Court.
A link to the judgment can be found here.
Tom Ford acted for FRN at first instance, in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, led by Jamie Carpenter KC in the Supreme Court, and instructed by Mishcon de Reya LLP (Shaistah Akhtar, Andrew Short and Lydia Allaby).
