DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE JUDGEMENT IN ATM DISPENSE ERROR CASE

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On the 24th of May, 2018 a Benue State High Court, sitting in Makurdi, delivered judgement in the case of of KUME BRIDGET v. GTBANK PLC & UBA PLC (SUIT No. MHC/198/14). A case that has been reported as the "First Nigerian Case on ATM Dispense Error". A copy of the judgement has been obtained and can be downloaded here and here. Please download, read and make your comments and suggestions in the comments section of this page or send them to timoteetion@gmail.com.

UPDATE AND MY INITIAL OPINION ABOUT THE JUDGEMENT IN KUME BRIDGET vs GTBANK PLC & UBA PLC

INTRODUCTION

A Benue State High Court of Justice, sitting in Makurdi, today the 24^th of May, 2018, delivered judgement in the case of KUME BRIDGET v. GTBANK PLC & UBA PLC (SUIT No. MHC/198/14). The case involved a claim of failed ATM transaction as alleged by the plaintiff  and it was probably the first Nigerian case to seek to address the failure of ATM to dispense cash as other ATM cases had dealt with unauthorized ATM withdrawals. In unauthorized withdrawals the customer goes to the bank or ATM to make withdrawals and then learns that certain amount has been debited from his account or he is in possession of his ATM card and suddenly receives debit alerts on his account while in non-dispense or partial dispense of cash, the customer has sufficient funds in his account, attempts to make a withdrawal and the ATM does not dispense cash but his account is debited or dispenses less cash than that requested by the customer.

BRIEF FACTS OF THE CASE

The Plaintiff sometimes in October, 2013 attempted severally to withdraw money from the ATM of 2^nd Defendant but according to the plaintiff the ATM failed to dispense cash nevertheless her account was debited. The Plaintiff claimed that on she had on 2^nd October, 2013 withdrawn money and her account balance showed N95, 213.07. However, when she attempted to withdrawn N20,000.00 only on 3^rd October, 2013 the machine displayed a message that she had insufficient funds. She further tried withdrawing N20,000.00 twice but the same message displayed. She left the ATM and came back to the same ATM on 4^th October, 2013 to withdraw N20,000.00 and then N10,000.00 but the same message of the previous day was displayed. According to the Plaintiff she was engaged in some other pressing engagements so she was only able to make a complaint to her bank; the 1^st Defendant (GTBANK Plc) on 8^th October, 2013 as 5^th and 6^th were Saturday and Sunday respectively.

According to the defendants the withdrawal attempts were successful. Plaintiff disagreed and sued the Defendants. The Defendants relied on the debit entries in the Plaintiff’s Statement of Account, the ATM Electronic Journal Log of 2^nd Defendant and the ATM Camera footages to contend that the ATM of the 2^nd Defendant dispensed cash which was picked up by the Plaintiff. The 2^nd Defendant also contended that the Plaintiff is not a credible witness because she failed to instantly report the failed transaction to her bank.

DECISION OF THE COURT

The court held that plaintiff failed to prove that the ATM of the 2^nd Defendant (UBA Plc) didn't dispense cash to her the various times she attempted to make withdrawals. In reaching this conclusion the court found that the Plaintiff isn't a credible witness because she didn't report the alleged failed transactions until after 5 days. The court also relied on the debit entries in Plaintiff's Statement of Account and the entries of PIN entered, Cash Presented and Cash Taken recorded in the 2nd Defendant's ATM Electronic Journal logs regarding the Plaintiff's withdrawal transactions. The court further reasoned that the documentary evidence namely; the statement of account and ATM Electronic Journal log supersedes the oral evidence of the Plaintiff that she didn't get money from the ATM of 2nd Defendant.

The court in the judgement said it sympathised with the Plaintiff but that court judgements are based on law and evidence and not on sentiments.

OPINIONS

I had the opportunity of reading through ALL the processes filed in the case. In appraising the evidence in the case the court failed to consider the inconsistent entries in the ATM journal logs and the fact that both the 1st and 2nd Defendants' witnesses admitted under cross examination that entries or record of transactions in the ATM journal aren't always accurate or error proof, meaning that the court ought not to have attached much weight to such a piece of evidence that is not reliable even though it is documentary evidence, which is held to be superior to oral evidence.

The court also didn't appraise the ATM camera footage presented by the 2^nd Defendant which didn't show the ATM of 2nd Defendant dispensing cash and the Plaintiff picking up the said cash. In fact the ATM camera images (still photos and not video recording) were so blurred that one could not make out the person in the photo and whether it was in front of an ATM, let alone the ATM of the 2nd Defendant). 

The court also failed to consider the admission under cross examination of both defendants’ witnesses that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2014 directed banks to refund to customers, monies trapped in ATMs as a result of ATM non-dispense or partial dispense errors.

POSERS

How can a bank customer be expected to successfully prove that the ATM of a bank didn't pay her cash when she attempted a withdrawal transaction but her account was nevertheless debited and the debit was recorded in her statement of account? On whom should the burden of proof lie in such a case? Who has  superior access, control and custody of evidence of a successful ATM withdrawal transaction; the bank customer or the bank? 

SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS TO POSERS

All you readers are enjoined to attempt answers or provide solutions to the posers above. After all, Anton Chekov, once said: “The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.” I have stated the problem correctly so you readers provide answers. 

CONCLUSION
The judgement is a sad one for the multitude of ATM users in Nigeria who suffer from ATM non-dispense or dispense errors and which even the Central Bank of Nigeria is aware of and once directed the banks to refund  to customers, monies trapped in banks' ATMs due to partial or non-dispense errors. About two years after the initial directive by the CBN issued in 2014, it was reported that "inundated by complaints from bank customers over delays and most times non-reversal of dispense errors encountered during electronic transactions, CBN has said it will start monitoring banks to ensure that dispense errors are automatically reversed and the account of the customer credited."

Senator Ali Ndume, Computer Generated Evidence & Law Reporting

The case of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume  is among the pioneer criminal cases that dealt with admissibility or otherwise of e-evidence or computer generated evidence e.g. call logs, SMS etc. under section 84 of the Evidence Act, 2011. In that case the trial court admitted some computer generated items in evidence but on appeal the evidence was ruled inadmissible. Therefore, the Court of Appeal judgements in Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume v. FRN delivered on 17/12/13 in Appeal No. CA/A/78/CR/2013 and CA/A/78A/CR/2013, are watershed cases with regards to interpretation or application of section 84 of the Evidence Act in CRIMINAL trials yet it seems that no law report in Nigeria has reported them.

The appellate court decisions ought to be reported so as to make them more readily or easily available to many lawyers and thus contribute to the development of our evidence law. The importance of many a lawyer having access to the appellate court judgement has become critical as many criminal trials, especially those involving highly placed persons, to a large extent is hinged on the admissibility or otherwise of text messages, call data records, bank statements and other forms of computer generated evidence. For instance one of the reasons for the court in upholding the no case submission in Ndume's case was the expulsion from evidence, certain computer generated evidence by the Court of Appeal, which pieces of evidence were vital to the prosecution’s case.

Also in the trial of Rickey Tarfa SAN on a two-count charge of obstruction of justice and attempting to pervert the course of justice, the prosecution tendered in evidence details of alleged telephone conversations and text messages between the accused and a High Court judge in an ongoing bribery case.

Furthermore, in the ongoing trial of Nwobike SAN by the EFCC on 11 counts bordering on perverting the course of justice and offering gratification to public officials, the accused was confronted with various text messages he was alleged to have sent to court officials to illegally influence court cases he was handling.

HISTORICAL CELL SITE LOCATION INFORMATION AND TELCOS IN NIGERIA

According to Wikipedia.com, a telco i.e. telephone company, telephone service provider or telecommunications operator:

is a kind of communications service provider (CSP) (more precisely a telecommunications service provider or TSP) that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access…With the advent of mobile telephony, telephone companies now include wireless carriers, or mobile network operators. Most telephone companies now also function as internet service providers (ISPs), and the distinction between a telephone company and an ISP may disappear completely over time, as the current trend for supplier convergence in the industry continues.

Historical cell site location information or mobile/cell phone location data is a collection of past connections between a mobile phone and cell towers or telecommunications masts. A cell site is mobile phone base station or antenna where radio signals are sent and received. In  the United States case of State v. Earls, it was stated that “Cell or (mobile) phones register or identify themselves with nearby cell towers every seven seconds. Cell providers (like MTN, Glo, Etisalat and Airtel in Nigeria) collect data from those contacts, which allow carriers to locate cell phones on a real-time basis and to reconstruct a phone’s movement from recorded data.”

Most times when you call the call centre of your GSM network provider or telco in Nigeria such MTN, Glo, Etisalat or Airtel, to make a complaint or inquiry, the customer care representative will ask you what town or city and local government you are calling from. I am usually taken aback by this question because they (telcos) already know or at least can approximate my location so why bother to ask me.

Whenever a mobile telephone makes a call, the call is routed through a cell site located at a fixed geographic location. Mobile telephone companies keep records of which cell site processes a call, and through this information law enforcement agents can locate the position of the SIM card, and therefore infer the location of the telephone user. This was used by the Nigerian Police to obtain the location of Timothy Dung, an armed robbery suspect in the case of The State v. Timothy Dung. On page three of the judgement it was stated thus:

According to the PW2 on the 20/8/2010 a case of armed robbery was transferred from the ‘E’ Division Police Station to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID). PW1 volunteered a statement before the police.

According to the PW2 they swung into action by applying their detective mechanism to arrest the person because the line snatched was still going. Police applied to court to obtain a court order to serve Airtel/Zain who was the service provider of the line (Zain) snatched from the PW1. Airtel/Zain complied with the court order and released the coordinate to the Police. The coordinate enabled the Police to set a security trapping system that showed them the exact direction and position where the accused (that) was using that particular line at that time was standing. The system gave the latitude and longitude on google earth. lt shows(sic) that the accused person who was with the stolen line was at Abuja and the call history of the line after the robbery was within Abuja town and a town in Plateau State.  However, about three' days back, the line was showing that it, was in Abuja. The Police went to Abuja and the system directed them to Federal Fire Service in Abuja town and they went there. When the PW2 and his team called the number/line, it rang and the accused received the call. The PW2 then arrested the accused and interviewed him.

The case of United States v. Allums, also shows that telcos know or can estimate the location of their subscribers or customers at any given time using historical cell site location information (CSLI) or cell site analysis. James Edward Allums on 30^th November, 2007, robbed a bank in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. A bank employee dropped a chair from the second floor balcony onto Allums’ head as he stood brandishing a knife at a teller on the first floor.  In anger Allums removed his ski mask to look up and curse at the chair-dropper and in the process glowered directly into the surveillance camera. Allums had a mobile phone on him on 30th November.

Prosecutors introduced evidence that cell site tracking records showed that Allums’ phone, and presumably Allums, was located in close proximity to the bank and to two other locations also robbed by Allums. Thus, Allums was convicted on three counts of armed robbery.

Apart from historical CSLI mobile phone location can also be determined through GPS and mobile phone triangulation. At this juncture it is appropriate to state how mobile phone communications work as captured or explained in Re: Application for Telephone Information Needed for a Criminal Investigation:

Cell (mobile) phones operate through the use of radio waves.  To facilitate cell phone use, cellular service providers maintain a network of radio base stations—also known as cell towers (popularly referred to in Nigeria as mast)—throughout their coverage areas.

Whenever a cell phone makes or receives a call, sends or receives a text message, or otherwise sends or receives data, the phone connects via radio waves to an antenna on the closest cell tower, generating cell site location information (CSLI).  The resulting CSLI includes the precise location of the cell tower and cell site serving the subject cell phone during each voice call, text message, or data connection.  If a cell phone moves away from the cell tower with which it started a call and closer to another cell tower, the phone connects seamlessly to that next tower.

CSLI may be generated in the absence of user interaction with the cell phone. For example, CSLI may still be generated during an incoming phone call that is not answered.  Additionally, most modern smartphones have applications that continually run in the background, sending and receiving data without a user having to interact with the cell phone.

Indeed, cell phones, when turned on and not in airplane mode, are always scanning their network’s cellular environment. In so doing, cell phones periodically identify themselves to the closest cell tower—i.e., the one with the strongest radio signal—as they move throughout their network’s coverage area.  This process, known as “registration” or “pinging,” facilitates the making and receiving of calls, the sending and receiving of text messages, and the sending and receiving of cell phone data. Pinging is automatic and occurs whenever the phone is on, without the user’s input or control. A cell phone that is switched on will ping the nearest tower every seven to nine minutes. (Emphasis mine)

From the above it is crystal clear that CSLI can be used to estimate the location of an individual by identifying the nearest cell tower or mast and sector used when a call is made. It therefore presents circumstantial evidence of a person’s location.  This ability to locate a cell phone presents obvious benefits to law enforcement and intelligence authorities  as seen in the two cases referred to above. CSLI also poses a significant threat to privacy. Thus in State v. Earls (supra) the court observed that:

Advances in technology offer great benefits to society in many areas. At the same time, they can pose significant risks to individual privacy rights. This case highlights both principles as we consider recent strides in cell-phone technology. New improvements not only expand our ability to communicate with one another and access the Internet, but the cell phones we carry can also serve as powerful tracking devices able to pinpoint our movements with remarkable precision and accuracy.

PROPER CUSTODY AND DOCUMENTS POSTED ON THE CBN WEBSITE

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) routinely issues guidelines and circulars which are usually posted to its website: cenbank.org. Which officer of the CBN is by the ordinary course of official duty, authorized to deliver copies of documents posted on the CBN website? In whose "proper custody" are documents (i.e. guidelines and circulars issued by CBN) posted on CBN's website? Is it a particular CBN department or head/director of a department from which the document originated from? Since the documents are posted on the CBN’s website can’t they be deemed to be from proper custody if they are delivered by any officer of a CBN branch office other than the headquarters in Abuja? 

In KEYSTONE BANK LIMITED v. A. O. S. PRACTICE (2013) LPELR-20357(CA) the Court of Appeal per Ibrahim Mohammed Musa Saulawa (JCA) held thus:

“Regarding certification of public document, section 104 of the Evidence Act is very much instructive. And by virtue of the said section 104:-

(1) Every public officer having the custody of a public document which any person has a right to inspect shall give that person on demand a copy of it on payment of the legal fees thereof, together with a certificate written at the foot of such copy that it is a true copy of such document or pact thereof, as the case may be, and such certificate shall be dated and subscribed by such officer with his name and his official title, and shall be sealed, whenever such officer is authorized by law to make use of a seal, and such copies so certified shall be called certified copies.

(2) Any officer who, by the ordinary course of official duty, is authorized to deliver such copies shall be deemed to have custody of such documents within the meaning of this section. The term 'proper custody', as couched in section 104 of the Evidence Act, denotes the custody of any official who in the ordinary course of the official duties or functions thereof is authorized to deliver certified copies of the public document to any member of the public. Thus, the legal appointment of the official certifying the copy of the public document is needless or immaterial. It's sufficient to merely show that the official is defecto the custodian of the document. See R. VS. PARSONS (1866) L.R.I. CCR 24; 10 COX 243.””

Mr. A, in Bama, Borno State, intending to rely on such documents in legal proceedings approaches CBN branch office in Maiduguri for certification but he is referred to CBN headquarters in Abuja. Why should Mr. A apply to Abuja for certification? Can't an officer of CBN in the CBN's branch in Borno State or any neighbouring state for that matter be able to download the documents posted on CBN's website and certify same for Mr. A?

I think that the purpose of certification is to verify that the documents intended to be relied upon by a party is genuine and same as the original in the custody of the officer. If so the CBN branch should be able to download the documents and verify from the particular department which originated or made the documents that what is on the website is what was actually issued by the said department and then certify accordingly. The bureaucratic delays of either going to Abuja to apply or sending in an application and asking someone to help follow up the application in Abuja constitute a clog in the quick dispensation of justice.