Facts:

The Appellant was the Plaintiff in the trial court. He had sued the Respondents who were the Defendants for the recovery of a debt of ₦12,000,000.00 owed to him for a contract executed (being the rehabilitation of the roads in Abatete, repairs of the Local Government Bulldozer and vandalized transformers) at the behest of the Appellants and for the benefit of the Respondents. The trial Judge, on the application of the Appellants for the matter, to be set down for hearing – there being “a prima facie service” of the originating processes (including the statement of claim) on the Respondents, allowed the application and thereafter set down the suit for hearing on the merits.
At the hearing and before the judgments, hearing notices, as well as the Appellants’ pre-action notice purportedly served on the Respondents were put in evidence. The learned trial judge took further evidence on the facts in issue. Thereafter he proceeded to issue his judgment in favour of the Appellants. More than four months after the judgment of the trial court was delivered, the Appellants sought to enforce the judgment by way of garnishee proceedings and thus attached the Respondents’ account in Standard Trust Bank vide Order Nisi. Upon this discovery, the Respondents came by an application to set aside the purported judgment of the trial court on the ground that they were not served the originating processes, and that the whole charade was a connivance by the chief bailiff of the trial court. They also alleged that pre-action notice was not served on them. Accordingly, the said judgment was set aside.
Aggrieved by the decision of the trial court, the Appellants appealed to the Court of Appeal (lower court), which affirmed the decision of the trial court. Further aggrieved by the decision of the lower court, the Appellants appealed to the Supreme Court.