Alhadj Busari Adeeso Suleman & Anor V. Hannibal Johnson (1951)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Claim for Declaration of Title based on conveyance by original owners—Prior
adverse possession by respondent—Possession inconsistent with any title
remaining in the- original owners—Reversionary rights of original owners did not arise—Evidence required to establish acquiescence not so high as where original owners granted occupational rights and reserved to themselves a reversionary interest.

Facts

The defendant was the executor of a deceased person to’ whom the property was conveyed in fee simple in 1901. The deceased remained in undisturbed possession until his death in 1942 and the defendant also remained in undisturbed possession until 1948, when the appellant was granted a conveyance by the original owners, the Oloto family.

The main ground of appeal was that the trial Judge was wrong in holding that the reversionary interest of the Oloto family was extinguished by the adverse possession of the deceased person and his executor, the defendant.

The defendant’s claim was based on an absolute grant, and as the Oloto family never purported to have granted even occupational rights to him, the question of any reversionary interest did not arise. In such circumstances the evidence required to establish acquiescence was less than where the original owners had a reversionary interest.

Held

‘the possession by the defendant and his predecessors was inconsistent with any title in the Oloto family. The adverse possession existed for nearly fifty years, for the last twenty-two of which, at least, the occupiers were exercising such overt acts of ownership as would have provoked the Oloto family to assert their claim to ownership or possession.

The question of any reversionary rights did not arise, and, the quantum of evidence required to establish acquiescence was less than where a reversionary right existed. In the circumstances of this case the evidence established acquiescence and the plaintiff’s claim for a declaration of title failed.

Appeal dismissed.