Rebecca Amankra V Latey Zankley (1963)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

BAIRAMIAN JSC 

The defendant appeals from the judgment of Dickson J. dated 13th March, 1961, in the Lagos High Court suit No. LD/30/1959, which grants the plaintiff a declaration of title to a certain piece of land.Part of the plaintiff’s case is that it was conveyed to him on 29th August, 1957, by deed, which was delivered for registration at 11 o’clock a.m. on the 16th September, 1957, and registered as No. 34 at page 34 in volume 1093 of the Land Registry Office at Lagos. The vendor is Charles Olusola Togonu Bickersteth, and the purchaser the plaintiff. It is exhibit H in the record.

The defendant relies mainly on exhibit W, a conveyance between the same vendor and one Adekunle Coker as the purchaser, which is dated the 16th May, 1957; it was delivered for registration at 11.40 a.m. on the 17th March, 1960, and registered as No. 67 at page 67 in volume 1159 of that Registry.

The argument for the defendant in her appeal is that, as the vendor had conveyed the legal estate to Coker in May, 1957, he had divested himself of the legal estate and had it not any more, so he could not convey it to the plaintiff in August, 1957: nemo dat quod non habet. The argument for the plaintiff had been in the court below, that the defendant had lost priority by virtue of section 16 of the Land Registration Act, cap. 99.

The long title of that Act is

“An Ordinance to consolidate and amend the Law relating to the registration of instruments and the filing of judgments affecting land in Nigeria.”

It is not an Act for the registration of title to land; but it contains sanctions for failure to register and for delay in registration, in sections 14 to 16. Section 14 relates to Crown grants and certain other instruments with which we are not concerned here; they become void if not registered within a certain time, which, however, may be extended for good cause.

Section 15 provides that

“15. No instrument shall be pleaded or given in evidence in any court as affecting any land unless the same shall have been registered in the proper office as specified in section 3: Provided that etc.”

Of section 16 it is enough to copy subsection (1):

“16. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, and in particular of subsection (2) of this section, every instrument registered under this Ordinance shall, so far as it affects any land, take effect, as against other instruments affecting the same land, from the date of its registration as hereinafter defined in the proper office as specified in section 3, and every instrument registered before the commencement of this Ordinance shall be deemed to have taken effect from the date provided by the law in force at the time of its registration.”

In the normal case, a person who receives a conveyance takes it to the Registry, where the time and date of his delivering it is certified; if all is well, it is registered, and the registration is taken to be at the time and on the date certified as that of delivery: section 17. If registration is refused, a note of “registration refused” is made; in case of subsequent delivery for registration, the time and date of it are certified, and if the instrument is registered, they become the hour and date of registration: section 18. The precise hour and date of delivery, or subsequent delivery, are of supreme importance for the purposes of section 16. They are of supreme importance to a person who makes a search for his guidance.

Section 28 states that

“28. The registrar shall allow searches to be made at all reasonable times in any register book, register or file of registered or filed documents in his custody.”