MR. Ubaka Ugbene V. Cecelia Ugbene & Ors (2016)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

IGNATIUS IGWE AGUBE, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This Appeal is against the Judgment of the High Court of Enugu State sitting at the Enugu Judicial Division per Honourable Justice P. C. Akubuilo, which Judgment was delivered on the 8th day of December, 2011 in favour of the Plaintiffs (now) Respondents.

It would be recalled that the Respondents as Plaintiffs in the Lower Court took out a Writ of Summons dated the 8th of November, 2008 and filed on the 10th day of November 2011 and in the amended Statement of Claim dated and filed on the 19th of July, 2010 through their Learned counsel Miss Uzoamaka Egbo of B. C. Nwobodo and Associates, sought for the following Relieves in paragraph 16 thereof as follows:

?16. Whereof the Plaintiffs Claim as follows:

(a) A Declaration that the property known as plot 26 in Block 50 otherwise known as No. 7 Church Rood, Asata and now registered in the Land Office as No. 62 at Page 62 in volume 936 is the Joint Property of Late Benjamin Ugbene and the Defendant.

(b) A Declaration that the Plaintiff?s as beneficiaries of the Estate of Late Benjamin Ugbene are

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entitled to an equal share of the said property with the Defendant.

(c) A Declaration that the Defendant as Co-owner cannot in law transfer the said property to himself alone without the authority and consent of the Plaintiffs as beneficial owners.

(d) A Declaration that the Renewal of lease of the said property by the Defendant to his name alone in 1975 without the authority and consent of the Plaintiffs as Beneficiaries of the Estate of late Benjamin Ugbene is illegal, unlawful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

(e) An Order of Court setting aside the purported transfer of the said property by the Defendant to himself in Building Lease dated the 17th day of August, 1976 and Registered at the Land Registry as No. 62 at Page 62 in volume 936.

(f) An Order for the Sale of the said Property that is to say Plot No. 26 in Block 50 known as No. 7 Church Road, Asato Enugu and the proceed realized therefrom be shared in equal shares between the Plaintiffs and Defendants.”

Accompanying the Amended Statement of Claim were a List of Witnesses and Documents sought to be relied upon at the trial and the Amended Statement on

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