The Supreme Court will on February 5, 2029, hear an appeal filed by former employees of Zapata Marine Services Nigeria (ZMSN) Limited against Tidex Nigeria Limited over an alleged $56 million workers’ trust fund.

The appeal challenges the decisions of two lower courts, which declined to compel Tidex to pay the sum representing 10 per cent of profits declared by Zapata before its takeover by Tidex.

A panel led by Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji heard the counsels representing both parties last week.

Counsel to the appellants, who filed in representative capacity, Onyinye Okonkwo, maintained that the appeal was properly before the court following the grant of leave to appeal earlier in the case.

However, Tidex’s counsel, O. J. Aboje, objected, arguing that service of court processes on the respondent had not been properly effected, as documents were sent to the company’s Lagos office instead of its Warri location.

The apex court directed both sides to address procedural concerns before proceeding to the substantive hearing.

The appeal, marked SC/1336/2018, stems from a long-standing dispute between Zapata’s former employees and Tidex Nigeria Ltd.

The workers, through their lead counsel, Mr Norrison Quakers (SAN), contended that Zapata had established a Workers’ Trust Fund entitling long-serving employees to 10 per cent of profits declared by the company, including in the event of its winding up.

They claimed that the $56 million in question formed part of this trust fund and was due to them before the company was absorbed by Tidex.

The workers alleged that Tidex, upon taking over Zapata’s assets and liabilities, wrongfully withheld the funds.

Tidex, however, denied the existence of any such trust fund, describing the claim as speculative.

In its filings, the company maintained that no merger or takeover occurred between its Nigerian operations and Zapata, noting that only corporate restructuring took place at the level of their parent firms in America.

The National Industrial Court (NIC) earlier dismissed the workers’ suit, a decision later upheld by the Court of Appeal, which also rejected their application for leave to appeal on labour jurisdiction grounds.

Despite serving their brief of argument at the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, the appellants said Tidex failed to respond, prompting the apex court to grant leave for hearing of the case and proceed to slam a long adjournment on the distraught appellants.