CaseLaw
Onajoko V. Odunlami (2000) CLR 7(h) (CA): 8 NWLR (Pt.667) 71 (CA)
Brief
Facts
The appellant sued the 1st to 3rd respondents at the High Court, Sagamu praying the court for a declaration that he is entitled to a grant of statutory right of occupancy in respect of a piece of land at Oke-Ola, Ode-Remo. The respondent also claimed the sum of N2, 500.00 being damages for trespass and an order of injunction.
In the course of the proceedings, one Chief Liyi Sokunbi was on the application of the 1st to 3rd respondents joined as a third party for himself and on behalf of the Likanna Descendants Union. The 1st to 3rd respondents filed their defence and counter-claimed against the appellant and the third party among others that the Power of Attorney dated 22nd day of June, 1962 was null and void as same was made without the authority and consent of the Alaiye Ode the head of the Likanna family and without the consent of the Likanna family.
The 1st to 3rd respondents also prayed the court that any sale or disposition of any part of Likanna family land without the consent of the Alaiye Ode, the family head and the principal members of the Likanna family is null and void; that the purported sale of the family land to the appellant without the requisite consent of the head of the family is void. Alternatively, the 1st to 3rd respondents prayed the court to declare that the purported sale of the family land to the appellant was null and void as same was ultra vires the Power of Attorney, damages and an order of injunction.
The appellant relied on judgments in a previous suit, which he claimed, constituted estoppel per rem judicatam and contended that the plaintiffs in the said judgments were ancestors of the 1st to 3rd respondents while the defendants therein were the ancestors of the appellant.
At the conclusion of trial and addresses of counsel, the trial court dismissed the appellant’s claims in their entirety and declared that the purported sale of the land to the appellant was null and void as same was ultra vires the Power of Attorney.
The court also made an order of perpetual injunction restraining the third party and other members of Likanna Descendants Union from allotting, selling or in any way dealing with the Likanna family land in Ode-Remo or from parading themselves as representatives of the Likanna family.
The appellant was aggrieved with the decision and appealed to the Court of Appeal.