The Honourable Mr. Justice Philip Nnaemeka Agu (Nnaemeka-Agu J.C.A.) of the Federal Court of Appeal, who in June, 1977, was a Judge of the High Court of Anambra State, on the 17th day of June, 1977 in the Onitsha Judicial Division of the High Court of the said State, delivered a judgment in favour of the respondents who, as plaintiffs in suit 0/71/58, claimed against the appellants, as defendants, a declaration of title to a parcel of land situate at Aboh, Ogidi in Anambra state, damages for trespass thereon and an order of injunction to restrain the appellants from further interference with the respondents ownership of the said land. The appellants unsuccessfully appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal holden at Enugu (hereinafter refereed to simply as the Court of Appeal), from the said judgment of the Honorable Mr. Justice Nnaemeka Agu (who will hereafter in this judgment be referred to as Nnaemeka-Agu J.). They now appeal to this Court contending as they did in the Court of Appeal that the judgment of the High Court of Anambra State in Suit 0/71/58 is null and void the same having been delivered by the learned Judge when he had no jurisdiction to do so.

For the purpose of answering the question of law upon which this appeal will turn only a brief account is needed of the facts that have given rise to it. The respondents in 1958, filed their claims for title to land at Aboh in Ogidi, damages for trespass thereon and injunction in the High Court of Onitsha in the former Eastern Nigeria (part of which is now Anambra State). After a chequered history in the wake of the Nigerian Civil War and the creation of States the suit was eventually heard by Nnaemeka-Agu J. who after listening to the address of counsel on both sides on the 13th day of June, 1977 adjourned the matter to 17th June, 1977, when he duly delivered judgment as already stated. Sometime subsequent to this judgment, Nnaemeka-Agu J. was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Appeal with effect from the 15th day of June, 1977. There is no evidence in these proceedings of the exact date of appointment however for the question of law raised in this appeal the important fact is that the appointment of Nnaemeka-Agu J. as a Judge of the Federal Court of Appeal was made effective from the 15th day of June, 1977, that is, two days prior to delivery by him of the judgment from which the appellants have appealed.: