Chief Meburami Akinnubi & Anor Vs Grace Olanike Akinnubi (Mrs.) & Ors (1997)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

MOHAMMED, JSC. 

This is an appeal from the decision of the Benin Division of the Court of Appeal. The 1st respondent, Mrs. Grace Olanike Akinnubi, as plaintiff, initiated these proceedings before the Akure High Court, Ondo State. From the facts gathered from her pleadings and affidavit verifying the endorsements on the writ, the 1st respondent was the widow of one late Rufus Gbadebo Akinnubi who died intestate in Lagos, on 6th February, 1983. They were married under the Yoruba Customary Law and their marriage was blessed with five children who were all minors when their father, Mr. Akinnubi, died.

The deceased at the time of his death owned a storey building in Okitipupa. The building was let to Owena Bank (Nigeria) Ltd. the 4th defendants in this suit. Sometime in 1986, the 2nd and 3rd defendants who are brothers of Mr. Akinnubi, applied to the Probate Registrar, High Court of Justice, Ondo State, for a grant of Letters of Administration of the estate of Mr. Rufus Gbadebo Akinnubi. The application was published in a Public Notice, by the Probate Registrar, in the Daily Sketch Newspaper.

On seeing the publication, the 1st respondent got her solicitor to lodge a caveat against the application. An attempt was made to reconcile the 1st respondent with, the two brothers of her deceased husband over the issue of the grant of the Letters of Administration. At the meeting, she advanced argument, through her solicitor, that she should be made a co-administratrix in the application for a grant of Letters of Administration of the estate of her deceased husband as representing the interest of her infant children. The reconciliation reached deadlock due to uncompromising attitude of the 1st and 2nd appellants.

On 11th July, 1986, the Probate Registrar who is 2nd, respondent, in this appeal, granted Letters of Administration to the lst and 2nd appellants. On hearing about it, the 1st respondent got a warning letter delivered to the 4th defendant giving the bank notice that Letters of Administration had been irregularly granted to the 1st and 2nd appellants and that the bank should not deal with them until the matter was decided by higher authorities.

On 17th October, 1996, the 1st respondent commenced an action against the two brothers of her deceased husband i.e. the 1st and 2nd appellants. She joined in the suit, the Probate Registrar and Owena Bank (Nigeria) Limited who are the 2nd and 3rd respondents, respectively, in this appeal. In the suit she claimed for the following reliefs:-

“1.       A declaration that the Letters of Administration granted by the 1st defendant to the 2nd and 3rd defendants on the 11th day of July, 1986, in respect of the estate of Rufus Gbadebo Akinnubi (deceased) is null and void and of no legal effect whatsoever, because the Probate Registrar (the first defendant) ignored a caveat which was lodged by the plaintiff against the appointment of 2nd and 3rd defendants as the only administrators to the exclusion of the plaintiff.

2. An order to set aside the purported grant made by the 1st defendant to the 2nd and 3rd defendants.

3. An injunction to restrain the 2nd and the 3rd defendants from performing the functions and duties of administrators of the said Estate.

4. An injunction to restrain the 1st and the 4th defendants from having any transactions or dealing with the 2nd and 3rd defendants in their capacities as administrators of the said Estate.

5. An order that the estate of the late Rufus Gbadebo Akinnubi be administered by the Administrator-General and Public Trustees of Ondo State of Nigeria.

6. Damages against the 1st defendant for wrongfully and in bad faith granting Letters of Administration to the 2nd and 3rd defendants, and damages against the 2nd and 3rd defendants for wrongfully and illegally obtaining the said Letters of Administration.”

In some of the averments in the 1st respondent’s statement of claim she explained that since the death of her husband she had singlehandedly been responsible for the education and upkeep of the five children of the family to the exclusion of any of the relatives, including the 1st and 2nd appellants. She maintained the five children under extremely hard conditions and sometimes had to resort to hawking fonts and all sorts of vegetable products in open motor parks in Lagos, in order to keep body and soul together.

The 1st and 2nd appellants filed a joint statement of defence and denied all the claims of the 1st respondent. Their denial is best explained in paragraphs 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 23 which read as follows:-