Facts:

The appellant is a pharmaceutical company. It was the defendant in suit no. PLD/J5891/95 filed at the high court of Plateau State in 1995. The respondent is a pharmacist and he was the plaintiff in the suit filed at the trial court.

A certain amount of money belonging to the appellant could not be traced and the appellant suspected the respondent, either alone or in concert with others, of having stolen the money. The appellant then seized and detained the respondent’s red coloured Mazda Bus with registration number BA 596T, its vehicle particulars and the originals of his Bachelor’s of Pharmacy degree certificate awarded by the University of Benin, as well as his Certificate of Provisional Registration Number 020093 issued by the Pharmacist Board of Nigeria on November 13, 1986. The appellant claimed that the respondent voluntarily handed over the items to it; a claim which the respondent denied.