George Oforgu & Anor V. Boyle Allanah & Ors (1999)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

AKAAHS, J.C.A.

The 1st Plaintiff/Applicant brought this application praying for the following orders:-

“(1) An Order granting the 1st Plaintiff/Appellant/Applicant an extension of time within which to seek leave to appeal against the Judgment of the High Court of Delta State, Asaba (Coram: Akoro. J) dated 27th day of May, 1998;

(2) An Order granting the 1st Plaintiff/Appellant/Applicant leave to appeal against the said Judgment dated 27th May, 1998:

(3) An Order granting extension of time within which the 1st Plaintiff/Appellant/Applicant shall file his notice and grounds of appeal against the said Judgment dated 27th day of May, 1998, the statutory period having expired:

(4) And for such further or other Orders as the Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance”

The application is supported with a 14 paragraph affidavit to which was annexed Exhibit “A”, the proceedings which took place on 27/5/98 and Exhibit “B” the proposed Notice and Grounds of Appeal. At the hearing of the application, the attention of learned counsel to the Plaintiff/Applicant was drawn to the non-service of the motion papers on the 2nd Plaintiff and he applied that the 2nd Plaintiffs name be struck out from the motion and the request was granted. It would appear that the 2nd Plaintiff, even though he belonged to the same Afeke Sub-family of Umuaji Village, Asaba as the 1st Plaintiff was not interested in the proceedings. He was an unwilling horse that was being dragged to the river to drink water.

Before considering the arguments of Counsel, it will be helpful to reproduce Exhibit “A” annexed to the application i.e. the proceedings of 27th May, 1998. The date of the suit (A/4/86) shows that the action was instituted early in 1986 and by the time it was dismissed in 1998 (a period of almost 12 years), the Plaintiff/Applicant had not closed his case. This is what the record contains.

“BEFORE THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE G.C. AKORO JUDGE

ON WEDNESDAY THE 27TH DAY OF MAY, 1998.

SUIT NO. A/4/86

BETWEEN:-

MR. GEORGE OFORGU & ANOR……….PLAINTIFFS

AND