How to get damages against bank over failure of ATM to dispense cash – Lawyer educates Nigerians

The Head of Research and Administration of Nwoko & Co Law office, Uyo, in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Ekom Nwoko (Esq), has educated Nigerians on social media on how to seek redress and get damages against commercial banks over the failure of bank Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to dispense cash to their customers when the affected customers have enough money in their bank accounts.

In a viral article sighted by Starnews Nigeria with the title: “BANKS AND CUSTOMERS BEWARE: ATM IS LIKE A CHEQUE”, Nwoko stated, “the court has now held that failure of a bank to pay a customer through the ATM when the customer has enough money in the account is a breach of duty of care and contract”.

“The customer is entitle to damages,” Nwoko added.

Read below the article:

BANKS AND CUSTOMERS BEWARE: ATM IS LIKE A CHEQUE

The court has held that the failure of a bank to pay a customer through the ATM when the customer has enough money in the account is a breach of duty of care and contract. The customer is s entitle to damages.

The Court of Appeal in the case of MOSES JWAN v. ECOBANK (2021) 10 NWLR (Pt. 1785) 449 at 485 per Aliyu JCA held, “The ATM card issued by a bank being akin to a cheque must be honoured on request once there are enough funds in the customer’s account, and failure to do that means the bank is in breach of duty of care owed to its customer”

The Court of Appeal granted the sum of N500,000.00 general damages for failure of the ECOBANK to pay its customer through its ATM the sum of N10,000.00.

No doubt, banks customers have been subjected to many forms of frustrations even when they have enough money in the bank account.

The decision of the Court of Appeal is a sweet-smelling relief for all bank customers using ATMs.

We do hope that the banks in Nigeria will smoothen their operations and render functional, reliable and effective service to its numerous customers to avoid paying heavy damages to customers who would take advantage of the decision of the Court to pursue their legitimate rights.

By: Ekom Nwoko
Head of Research and Administration of Nwoko & Co Law office, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.