Humphrey Onuoha V. Rosana Ndubueze & Ors. (2001)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

OGEBE, J.C.A.

The appellant sued the first respondent at the High Court of Mbano/Etiti in Imo State claiming –

“(i) Declaration that plaintiff was entitled to the peaceable possession and right of occupancy to the land known as Uhu-Okpotoro-Ulo Owere-Ogbuohia.

(ii) N5,000.00 special and general damages for trespass.

(iii) Perpetual injunction.

After exchange of pleadings the court joined the second, third and fourth respondents as defendants in the suit on their own request.

The appellant’s case was that the land in dispute which was shown in his plan Exh. A was originally owned by his ancestor Ogbuohia and that it passed on by inheritance to his father Onuoha.

Later his father pledged the land to one Ndubueze Ekechukwu, the father-in-law of the first respondent. Sometime in 1970, when the children of late Ndubueze Ekechukwu were about to share the land of their father they included the pledged land among the lands to be shared. The appellant and his elder brother reported the matter to Chief Ogueri who invited the elders and the Amalas who intervened.

The arbitration confirmed that the land in dispute had infact been pledged by the appellant’s father to the first respondent’s father-in-law and it decided that the land should be redeemed by the appellant and his brother. After the redemption, the appellant exercised maximum acts of ownership over the land including planting agricultural palm seedlings in 1983.

The respondents, on the other hand, deny the pledge and customary arbitration. They claim that they and the appellant had common ancestry and allege that the land in dispute was the patrimony of the first respondent’s husband which devolved on him from the sharing of the land of their common ancestor called Ebicham.

The trial court visited the locus in quo and after addresses by counsel on both sides gave judgment dismissing the appellant’s claim.

Dissatisfied with that judgment the appellant appealed to this court on two original grounds of appeal and six additional grounds of appeal.

The learned counsel for the appellant filed a brief of argument and distilled six issues for determination as follows:

“(1) Was what transpired in the court below fair hearing to sustain a valid judgment?