Respondents had sought a declaration of title to land and tailed. They therefore appealed to the Court of Appeal which allowed the appeal, set aside the Judgment of the High Court and made an order of retrial. It was against orders of retrial that the defendants appealed to the Supreme Court.

At trial, both parties pleaded a certain Customary Law Arbitration decision, each claiming that the decision was in their favour. The trial court did not resolve the divergent claims, but went on to attack the procedure adopted by the Arbitra¬tors and what he considered their unfair attitude, and the unreliable testimonies of some of the plaintiffs' witnesses.