The appeal deals in the main, with a claim founded on a testamentary disposition of interest in land allegedly acquired by purchase under customary law by the eldest son of a prosperous man from his father in the earliest twenties, 1924 to be more exact. The parties were of Ibo origin whose personal law was Osomari customary law i.e. native law and customary law i.e. native law and custom although the land is situated in Onitsha and parties lived and died on land. The parties to the alleged sale are dead and the devisees the plaintiffs/appellant herein, conscious of the devise and the need to assert their rights under the will which were being wantonly infringed by the respondents ad nauseam instituted an action by writ of summons filed in the High court, Onitsha then in Judicial Division of the High Court of eastern Nigeria but now Onitsha Judicial Division of the High Court of Anambra state for, in terms appearing on the amended statement of claim:

Pleadings were ordered, filed and served and the matter ultimately came up for trial before Oputa, J. (as he then was). After a protracted trial wherein the is¬sues raised were vigorously contested and moves for amicable settlement out of court flopped, the learned trial judge delivered a considered judgment, dismis¬sing all the items of claim as unproved.

The plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court mainly on the ground of assessment and evaluation of evidence.