CaseLaw
Orhue V. NEPA (1998) CLR 6(L) (SC)
Brief
Facts
The appellant in this appeal was plaintiff at the Benin High Court. The construction of high-tension 330 KV overhead Benin -Onitsha transmission line in 1966 was the cause of the suit filed in Benin High Court against the National Electric Power Authority, N.E.P.A., which is the respondent in this appeal. The appellant complained that the transmission line was constructed directly over his house rendering his house and the adjoining parcel of land unsafe for human habitation. As a result of electrical shocks the plaintiff and the house hold suffered from whenever they came in contact with metallic objects in the house, the appellant and his entire household, upon expert advice, moved out of the premises to a rented accommodation where he has been saying since 1966.
The appellant therefore claimed N200, 000.00 being compensation or damages for the unsafe condition he suffered from the energized wires of the respondent and expenses of living in a rented accommodation for 12 months. The learned trial judge directed pleadings to be filed and exchanged. At the conclusion of the trial and, in a well-considered judgment, Akenzua, J., found that the appellant had failed to prove his claim. The action was consequently dismissed.
Aggrieved by this decision the appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal. The lower court carefully considered all the issues raised for the determination of the appeal and in a well considered judgment Ejiwunmi, J.C.A., delivering the lead judgment; concurred in by Uche Omo, J.C.A. (as he then was) and Salami, J.C.A., dismissed the appeal. It is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal that the appellant has finally appealed to the Supreme court.