Adebayo Ogundoyin V David Adeyemi (2001)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

ONU, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment/order of the Court of Appeal holden at Ibadan in suit No.CN/1/122/89 dated the 19th of January, 1994. The respondent therein as plaintiff, had instituted the action in a representative capacity in the High Court of Osogbo Judicial Division of Oyo State against the appellants who were defendants, claiming the following reliefs:-

“(a) Declaration that the plaintiff is entitled to statutory certificate of occupancy in respect of a piece of land situate, lying and being at Aje farm land near Oyan town in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Oyo State.

(b) N500.00 special and general damages for trespass committed by the defendant on the land; and

(c) Injunction restraining the defendants from further acts of disturbance of the plaintiff and his family members on the land.”

Pleadings having been duly ordered, filed and exchanged by the parties, the case went to trial before Sijuade, J. as he then was, at the Osogbo Judicial Division of the then Oyo State (now Osun State) High Court. After hearing, counsel on both sides addressed the court. The learned trial Judge in a considered judgment dated 19th January, 1994 granted only the declaration sought by the respondent while dismissing the reliefs for damages for trespass and injunction.

The appellants being dissatisfied with the said judgment, filed their notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal sitting at Ibadan premised on four grounds.

FACTS OF THE CASE

The plaintiff/respondent’s case

The respondent of Laojo Family of Oyan, brought this action in a representative capacity laying claim over the land in dispute between the parties at Aje farm in Oyan more appropriately described and set out in Survey Plan No. 00.5/85 drawn by S. Akin Ogunbiyi, licensed surveyor:

That it was granted to Ademota and Ajiboye, the ancestors of the plaintiff by their father Oba Olusunle over two hundred years ago. The ancestors of the plaintiff/respondent took possession and started to cultivate it. The descendants of the ancestors thereafter inherited the land in dispute.

It was further demonstrated that the members of Laojo family grew kolanuts and other economic crops on the land, which is bounded by Gbebikan, Danakale, Ade and Ayika families as boundary neighbours. They (the Laojo family) then contended that Gbadamosi Aroyehun granted permission to Ogundoyin the father of the defendants/appellants to farm on the land in dispute. That Ogundoyin who paid Ishakole for the land not only later stopped but laid claim of ownership to the land in dispute, having destroyed 21 palm trees and three Kolanut trees property of the respondent.

The defendants/appellants’ case

For the defendants/appellants, the facts of the case were as follows: