The legal mechanism governing the transfer of suits between the Federal High Court and a State High Court in Nigeria remains a critical fixture in civil procedure, serving to prevent the outright striking out of validly initiated claims when jurisdictional lines overlap or shift.
While general common law principles dictate that a court lacking jurisdiction can only strike out a matter, statutory frameworks and judicial precedents have established distinct rules governing inter-court transfers between Nigeria’s parallel superior courts of record.
Key Highlights of the Legal Framework:
- Statutory Saving Provisions: Section 22(2) of the Federal High Court Act acts as a vital saving provision, empowering the Federal High Court to transfer a cause or matter to a State High Court (or vice versa, where statutory rules and rules of court permit) instead of striking it out, thereby saving time and mitigating limitation period bottlenecks for litigants.
- Constitutional Boundaries & Judicial Scrutiny: Appellate courts have consistently emphasized that powers of transfer cannot be exercised arbitrarily. The subject-matter jurisdiction delineated under Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) dictates whether an action properly belongs to the Federal High Court or a State High Court.
- Avoiding Multiplicity of Litigations: Jurisprudence—reinforced by landmark decisions from the Supreme Court—supports procedural flexibility that allows courts to remit case files rather than penalize litigants for bona fide misfilings, provided explicit statutory or rules-of-court authorization underpins the transfer.
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