CONSENT JUDGMENT IN NIGERIAN COURTS – GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS

Buoyed by the general principle of law that parties are bound by their agreement and no party will be permitted to resile or renege from agreements duly reached, it is often thought that consent judgment cannot be set aside or reversed. Whether this principle of law is cast in steel has remained unsettled. Consequently, this paper investigated the conditions that may lead to setting aside consent judgment in Nigerian Courts. From the body of decided cases considered in this paper, it was determined that the scheme of consent judgment exists in various Rules of Court to enable parties in Court, on their own accord and freewill, reach an amicable settlement of their disputes which, when duly executed as terms of settlement, may be adopted by the Court as its judgment. The paper further established that consent judgment is binding and final although it is not infallible as it may be reversed either by the trial Court itself, a Court of coordinate jurisdiction or appellate Court where the consent judgment is successfully attacked on the ground that it was actuated by fraud or entered by mistake or misapprehension of the facts. The paper viewed that consent judgment is a durable and welcome procedure in the administration of justice ecosystem. It therefore recommended among other things that in reaching amicable settlement, in addition to avoiding the pitfalls that may vitiate the consent judgment, parties must also comply with the peculiar procedure or protocol of the particular Court seised of the matter or where the case is pending or being tried.