Chief (Prince) Olatunde Oyewole & Ors V. MR. Bashiru Lasisi & Anor (2014)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

JAMES SHEHU ABIRIYI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Osun State High Court Osogbo Judicial Division delivered on 24th October, 2007 wherein the appellants were the defendants while the respondents were the plaintiffs.

The claim of the respondents at the Lower Court was for the following:

(1) A declaration that the plaintiffs are entitled to the piece of land along Railway Line, Alekuwodo Area, Osogbo being the property they inherited from their father Alhaji Lamidi Adeyinka.

(2) N2,000,000.00 (Two Million Naira) damages for trespass committed by the defendants on the land and

(3) An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from further acts of trespass on the disputed land.

The facts of the case are that the respondents’ father Lamidi Adeyinka farmed on the disputed land since 1969 but in 1972 or 1975 he bought it. He was in possession of the land. The father of the respondents executed a deed of conveyance. The respondents’ father was in possession of the land until 1981 when he died. After his death Ajayi Awoniyi became the caretaker of the land. In 2002 he noticed that some people were clearing the land and he challenged them.

According to the respondents, the land in dispute is outside the one covered by the judgment of the Supreme Court.

The case of the Appellants is that the land in dispute is at Alekuwodo Area of Osogbo. It is a minute part of the land acquired by settlement by Oba Laro. The 1st and 2nd appellants are members and representatives of the royal family. That the land in dispute was given to the 3rd appellant’s father for building a church.

The 3rd Appellant in his evidence in Court stated that the land belonged to his father who bought it from the Olomo – Obas with the consent of the Ataoja of Osogbo in 1976. After the death of his father, he inherited it.

At the Lower Court, the respondents called three witnesses; the caretaker, 1st respondent and a photographer. The appellant called four witnesses, a surveyor, 2nd and 3rd appellants, and a legal practitioner.

After hearing these witnesses the Lower Court in a reserved judgment found for the respondents in the following terms:

“On Plaintiffs’ claim for damages for trespass, there is evidence adduced before me that the 3rd defendant went into the land in a manner inconsistent with the Plaintiffs’ possession of it by building of small structure on it. I hold that the entry of the 3rd defendant into the land in dispute and his building thereon are all acts of trespass. This fact in my view is sufficient to sustain the plaintiffs claim for damages for trespass. I therefore award the sum of N100,000.00 in their favour.”

An order of perpetual injunction was also made against the appellants.