Employment court serving Ibadan denies ₦40,000 salary claim over disputed cash payment

The Employment court serving Ibadan has denied Bisi Akinwale’s claim against Kunle Adebiyi for ₦40,000 in outstanding April salary. It ordered no payment, finding that the available evidence did not establish that the balance remained unpaid.

The dispute concerned a claimed cash handover, not the amount earned. Both parties agreed that Akinwale’s April salary was ₦90,000 and that Adebiyi transferred ₦50,000 on 30 April. The court did not find that he had paid the remaining ₦40,000; it found that uncertainty about that payment prevented Akinwale from proving her claim.

The accepted bank record described the ₦50,000 transfer as part-payment of April salary. That established what had been transferred, but could not answer whether a separate cash payment followed.

Adebiyi’s handwritten ledger contained a specific entry dated 3 May recording a ₦40,000 cash payment for the April balance. The court gave that specificity some evidentiary weight. However, Adebiyi had created the record himself, the employee-signature space was blank, and nothing independently established when he wrote it or whether Akinwale acknowledged receipt.

The ledger therefore supported his account without conclusively proving the handover. His statements, relayed through counsel, were not independent documents or admitted witness testimony. Akinwale’s attributed account likewise did not resolve the uncertainty.

Applying the recorded rules on proof and wage accounting, the court placed the burden of establishing the requested relief on Akinwale. It would neither treat the bank transfer’s part-payment description as proof that no later payment occurred nor infer non-payment solely from the ledger’s blank signature space. The decisive point was that the whole record left the alleged cash handover unresolved.

Akinwale argued that the bank record proved only ₦50,000 had been paid against an agreed ₦90,000 salary. She maintained that an employer’s unsigned entry did not show she received the balance and sought only the outstanding ₦40,000.

She acknowledged that she had no separate receipt, independent witness or further obtainable proof concerning the alleged cash handover. She also said she could not establish from personal knowledge how the ledger entry had been made.

Adebiyi maintained that he paid the balance in cash before Akinwale left on 3 May. His submissions relied principally on the ledger. He acknowledged having neither a signed acknowledgment nor an identifiable witness to confirm receipt.

The parties’ agreement on the salary and bank transfer narrowed the dispute to a single payment. After both had an opportunity to address the records and missing acknowledgment, the court recorded that the evidence was exhausted and an adjournment was unavailable.

The decision turns on the limits of that evidence, rather than acceptance of the ledger as a receipt. It leaves the factual question of the cash handover unresolved while denying the claim for failure of proof. No other relief was granted.