Facts:

The defendant is in the business of shipping and clearing of goods while the
claimant is its customer. The claimant sued the defendant for damages for breach
of contract at the High Court of Lagos State. The suit was predicated on a contract entered into by the parties in which the claimant paid the sum of $1,000
(One Thousand United States Dollars) and N30,000.00 (Thirty Thousand Naira)
to the defendant for the shipment and clearing respectively of two consignments
of goods containing seventeen bag belonging to the claimant. The consignments
were to be shipped from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Lagos, Nigeria. The
claimant alleged that she received sixteen out of the seventeen bags and that the
last bag has been missing since 2006 when the contract was entered into. She
therefore claimed the sum of N2,280,000.00 (Two Million Two Hundred and Eighty
Thousand Naira) being the total monetary value of the missing consignment.
The defendant denied liability on the ground that it was the airline involved in the
carriage that failed to deliver the bag and that the defendant was only responsible
for the clearing and not the shipment. Furthermore, the defendant denied liability
on the ground that the person who entered into the contract with the claimant at
Dubai, United Arab Emirates was not its agent and was unknown to it. One of the
issues for determination is whether where exists a contractual relationship between
the parties, a breach of which entitles the claimant to the claims in the suit.