Anastasia Aina Gooding & Anor V. Omolara Martins (1942)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Validity of marriage in Roman Catholic Church at Abeokuta In’ 1906 depended upon provisions of section 2 of Marriages Validation Ordinance, 1916 (No. 3 of 1916)—Children of the marriage entitled to inherit property of their father who died intestate.

Facts

Hilario Campos and Florence John were married according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church at Abeokuta on the 29th November, 1906. The Church, at that time, was not licensed for the celebration of marriages. The plaintiffs were the surviving issues of the marriage.

Florence John died on the 25th March, 1911. Campos and the defendant, ()molars Martins, were married in accordance with native law and custom in 1931. Hilario Babatunde Campos was born of this Marriage on the 7th May, 1938.

On his death-bed Campos went through a form of marriage with the defendant, Omolara Martins, according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, and on the 14th December, 1941, Campos died intestate. The learned Judge found that the ceremony performed between the plaintiffs’ parents in 1906 did not constitute a valid christian marriage. On these facts the court reserved for the opinion of the Appeal Court the question as to who are the persons entitled to inherit Campos property.

Held

The attention of the Court below had not been drawn to the provisions of section 2 of the Marriages. Validation Ordinance, 1916 (No. :1 of 1916) which validated the marriage at Abeokuta in 1906 and that, on the facts, the persons entitled to inherit Campos’ property were the plaintiffs.

” On the facts set out, the persons entitled to inherit ” Campos’ property are the plaintiffs.”