J. T. Ogunsanya & Anor V. Arab Brothers Limited (1952)

Landlord and Tenant—Town Council Notice to demolish—refusing to quit—Landlord demolishing without Court order to evict—Increase of Rent (Restriction) Ordinance, sections 12 and 13 (1) (a), and second Schedule, Para. (g).

Facts

In the Court below the plaintiffs sued the defendants, who were their landlords, for trespass; the plaintiffs lost and appealed.

The Town Council gave a statutory notice requiring the landlords to pull down the premises within a given time as they were a dangerous building, and a similar notice to the tenants, but they refused to leave.

The landlords removed the roof and then demolished the walls though the tenants protested. The tenants sued for trespass. The view of the trial Judge was, in effect, that the landlords acted lawfully in evicting the tenants for the purpose, or in the course, of demolishing the premises under the notice. (The premises were admittedly premises to which the Restriction Ordinance applied.)

In their appeal the tenants relied on the provisions of the Ordinance quoted above: (the relevant text is in the judgment infra; a landlord cannot evict without a Court order; he may have the order without proof of suitable alternative accommodation where there is an abatement notice which makes eviction indispensable, but the Court may impose a condition for the tenant’s return later). The tenants argued that the landlords ought first to have gone to Court for an order of eviction based on the abatement notice.

Held

As the premises were admittedly premises to which the Increase of Rent (Restriction) Ordinance applied, the landlords could not evict the tenants without an order of Court; the Town Council’s notice of abatement did not affect the need for such an order, and the landlords were therefore liable for trespass.

Appeal allowed.