Baatse Angmor & Ors V. Teinor Angmor Ter (1943)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Title to land—Estoppel—Res judicata—Prior proceedings criminal, present proceedings civil—Oath cases in Native Tribunal.

Facts

The plaintiffs in an oath case in a Native Tribunal claimed a declaration of title to certain land, damages for trespass, and an injunction. The Divisional Court heard the case on transfer and granted the declaration and injunction. The defendant appealed on the ground, inter alio, of estoppel by res judicata by a judgment in an oath case decided in 1927 in which the defendant as complainant obtained a verdict of guilty against three accused persons, two of whom were plaintiffs in the present case, for violation of the national oath sworn upon them by the defendant by demarcating the boundary between him and them in the absence of himself and his people; and he contended that this was in itself • civil case concerning the same land as was now in dispute.

Held

the 1927 case was a criminal case and did not purport to decide anything about any land and could not operate as an estoppel by res judicata,

Appeal dismissed.