Mrs. S. A. Kareem & Ors v. David O. Ogunde & Anor (1972)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

G. B. A. COKER, J.S.C.

The appellants were the plaintiffs in this action instituted in the High Court, Lagos. The action was tried by Kassim J., who delivered judgment therein on the 26th May, 1969. The plaintiffs’ writ was endorsed for the following claims:

“(a) Declaration that plaintiffs are entitled in fee simple absolute in possession to the piece or parcel of land situate lying and being at Folarin Street, Surulere and otherwise described in the deed of conveyance dated the 11th November, 1953 and registered as No. 29 at page 29 in Volume 975 in the register of deeds kept at the Lands Registry in the office at Lagos.

(b) Rectification accordingly of the register of title No. M0/3413 entered in the names of the defendants:-David Ogunbayo Ogunde and Michael Adepoju Odeneye at the Lands Registry in the office at Lagos.

(c) 500.0.0d(pounds) damages for trespass committed by the defendants entering into the said land and damaging the fence of the plaintiffs thereon.

(d) An injunction restraining the defendants, their servants or agents from trespassing on the said land.”

Pleadings were filed by the parties and the pleadings show clearly that the plaintiffs, as well as the defendants (now respondents) were putting their respective titles in issue. The land concerned is situate at Folarin Street, Surulere in the mainland of Lagos.

By their pleadings, the plaintiffs aver that they are the children of one Madam Nimota Ajike (now deceased), that by virtue of the death intestate of their late mother in 1955 they became owners of the land in accordance with the customary laws of the Yorubas in Lagos, that their deceased mother held a conveyance covering the land in dispute, that her predecessors in title also had conveyances of the land and that the plaintiffs were in peaceful possession of the land until March 1966 when the defendants broke and entered into the said land after getting themselves registered as proprietors of the freehold interest in the land in accordance with the provisions of the Registration of Titles Act, under title No. MO/3413.

The statement of defence denies virtually all the facts averred in the statement of claim and states that the defendants claimed title to the said land, that the first defendant had erected a building costing some 32,000pounds on part of the land. They also pleaded long possession and the equitable defences of laches, acquiescence, standing by and so on.

At the trial, the parties gave evidence in support of their respective pleadings. For the plaintiffs the following instruments or conveyances were produced in evidence:

(i) A conveyance-dated the 11th November, 1953 from one Adam Idris Animashawun to Madam Nimota Ajike, exhibit A. The conveyance, exhibit A, recites an earlier conveyance of the 13th February, 1942.

(ii) A conveyance dated the 13th February, 1942 from Adam Idris Animashawun and one Alhaji Ayinla Balogun to Emmanuel Ajayi Roberts, exhibit B. This instrument describes how Adam Idris Animashawun exchanged this land for another one belonging to Alhaji Ayinla Balogun and how the latter then sold the land to Emmanuel Ajayi Roberts.

The conveyance exhibit B recites, inter alia, that the property was purchased by Animashawun at an execution sale in 1934 but states nothing as to the origin of the title of the judgment debtor therein described. As the root of title claimed by the plaintiffs went no farther, it is clear that they could not succeed in a claim for a declaration of title. (See Coker v. Animashawun (1960) L.L.R. 71).

As far as the defendants are concerned, they claimed by their pleadings and gave it in evidence that the land in dispute was a portion of lands originally belonging to the Oloto Chieftaincy family and that that family had at one time granted the land in dispute to one Lawani Giwa (now deceased). The defendants also claimed that one Ebenezer Anjorin bought the land in dispute from the children of Lawani Giwa and obtained from them a conveyance which they produced in evidence as exhibit G. They then claimed that by virtue of a conveyance also produced in evidence as exhibit F, the said Ebenezer Anjorin sold and conveyed the land to the defendants. The two defendants, so they said, then proceeded to get themselves registered under the provisions of the Registration of Titles Act, Cap. 181 as proprietors of the freehold estate in the land. This was done and they were in due course awarded a land certificate dated 17th June, 1964 and produced in evidence as exhibit H. The defendants further stated in evidence that they later discovered that the land formed part of the Oloto Chieftaincy family lands and so approached that family and paid them for the land and as a result of this they obtained the conveyance dated 1st June, 1967 and put in evidence as exhibit M. They then got the land certificate exhibit H duly amended by endorsing it with the record of exhibit M.