Former Chairman and Chief Executive of KPMG Nigeria, Bashorun JK Randle, has been the subject of multiple congratulatory messages after his former firm won a 23-year-old case at the Court of Appeal in Lagos State.
A message by an associate congratulated Bashorun Randle for persevering through more than two decades of legal dispute.
EDITOR’S PICKS
The associate hailed the veteran accountant for demonstrating that long suffering is a virtue.
“Congratulations on this a judicial victory. Once again, you’ve demonstrated to the younger generation that business disputes can be resolved through our institutional processes,” the message obtained by EKO HOT BLOG reads.
“The case may have tarried in the courts for such a long time that other mere mortals may have drifted away, but you have demonstrated in a practical manner that even long suffering, though an understated virtue still remains a fundamental one for those who will evolve into sages. Congrats sir on this judicial victory.”
Another associate familiar with the legal dispute hailed Bashorun Randle for not giving up on justice despite nearly 25 years of struggle.
BACKGROUND
The case, which involved KPMG Nigeria challenging the registration of KPMG Professional Services by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), was instituted in 2002 when Bashorun Randle led the accounting firm.
At the time, the company sought the nullification of CAC’s registration of “KPMG Professional Services,” a name it argued was deceptively similar to its longstanding brand.
Although a Federal High Court ruled against KPMG Nigeria in 2005, holding that the firm had merged with Akintola Williams Deloitte & Touche and therefore no longer had rights to the name “KPMG”, a Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos ruled in favour of Bashorun Randle’s old firm.
The appellate court found the claim of a merger “inadequate and unsubstantiated,”, noting that even if there was a merger, it only involved KPMG Audit, not the entire firm.
“The only branch of KPMG, if any, that entered into a merger… is KPMG Audit. The other spheres were totally unaffected.
“It would therefore be wrong to state that the merger (which has not been shown to this Court) of KPMG Audit with Akintola Williams means all the other areas of business, including KPMG Consulting and KPMG Tax Consultants, also ceased to exist,” it held.
In a unanimous judgement of the three-member panel that sat on the appeal, the court consequently granted all four prayers sought by KPMG Nigeria against the CAC, the first respondent, and KPMG Professional Services, the second respondent.
A member of the three-judge panel, Abdullahi Mahmud Bayero, who delivered the lead judgement, ruled that the CAC’s registration of a similarly named entity was improper and misleading under Section 662(1) (d) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990, now Section 852 of CAMA 2020.
FURTHER READING
“The Registrar cannot assign a business name already held by another entity. One cannot give what one does not have — nemo dat quod non habet,” the court held.
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