Afolabi Coker V Mariamo Oguntola & Ors (1985)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

KAWU, J.S.C.

The respondents herein were the plaintiffs in suit No. AB/33/73 instituted against the appellant and one Raimi Beji in the Ogun State High Court, Abeokuta Judicial Division, Abeokuta, on 30th March, 1973. In the suit the respondents claimed as follows:

“(a) Declaration of title to all that piece of land shown on the plan attached to conveyance made between Sinatu Efuyola, Raimi Beji and Esther Oyindaola and Solomon Oyeneye Coker dated 31st day of January, 1945 and registered at No. 80 at page 80 in volume 505 of the land registry, Ibadan.

(b) An order setting aside the conveyance made between Sinatu Efuyola, Raimi Beji and Esther Oyindaola and Solomon Oyeneye Coker dated 31st day of January, 1945 and registered as No. 80 at page 80 in volume 505 of the land registry, Ibadan. The annual rental value of the land is N20.”

Pleadings were ordered, filed and exchanged, but before hearing commenced, 2nd defendant, Raimi Beji was reported dead and the respondents withdrew their action against him.

The respondents case was that their ancestor Odutolu was the first person to settle on the land in dispute some time in 1830; that he later brought his brother, Sofoluwe to live with him on the land and that both of them cultivated and used the land jointly; that Sofoluwe died first, and after the death of Odutolu, the children of both Odutolu and Sofoluwe inherited the land under native law and custom, and continued to use it without partition; that some time in 1972, the respondents saw a building on the land, and upon inquiry, found that it was being erected by the appellant who when challenged, claimed that the land had been sold to his father in 1942 by one Idowu Beji, a member of the respondents family. It was the respondents case that as the land in dispute was not the personal property of Idowu Beji, he could not have validly sold it to the appellant’s father.

The appellant’s case was that the land in dispute was the personal property of Idowu Beji, who had inherited the same from his mother Mosuago, the only issue of Odutolu; that his father Chief Solomon Coker bought the land from Idowu Beji in 1942 and thereafter continued to exercise numerous acts of ownership on the land without disturbance; that in 1945 a formal Deed of Conveyance (Exhibit C) in respect of the land was executed by the children and sister of Idowu Beji in favour of his father.

Before hearing commenced, counsel were invited to settle issues to be determined by the Court and both counsel agreed that the issues for determination were:

“(i) Whether the land was the personal property of Idowu Beji at the time he purportedly sold it to 1st defendant’s father, or

(ii) Whether, at that time the land was Odutolu family land of which Idowu was a branch,

(iii) If the land were family land, whether the plaintiffs have been guilty of laches and acquiescence. ”

After hearing the parties and their witnesses, the learned trial Chief Judge came to the conclusion that the respondents had established their claim. He consequently granted them declaration of title to the land in dispute but refused to set aside the Deed of Conveyance.

Being dissatisfied with the decision of the trial court, the appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal (Ogunkeye, Akanbi and Omo, J.C.A.) on a number of grounds, and in the judgment delivered by Omo, J.J.C.A., and concurred in by Ogunkeye and Akanbi, J.J.C.A. that court dismissed his appeal and upheld the decision of the High Court.

Still not satisfied, the appellant has further appealed to the Supreme Court on the three grounds of appeal, complaining as follows: