James Latunde Aderokun V. United Africa Co. Ltd (1936)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Application for leave to appeal under Rule 11 of the West African Motion for Court of Appeal Rules.

Held : In Court’s discretion to grant or refuse.

Sir William Geary, Bart., for Plaintiff. R. F. Irving for Defendants.

The following decision was delivered :— KINGDON, C. J., NIGERIA.

This Court is of opinion that it has discretion to refuse or to allow this application and is not bound to grant it as of right.

In considering the question of whether that discretion should be exercised in this case in appellant’s favour, the Court thinks that no special ground has been shown, but on the contrary good reason has been shown why the application should be refused, namely that the appellant is already pursuing his remedy in another Court whose jurisdiction is not disputed and can obtain full redress in that other Court for any wrong he may have suffered. To allow this would-be appeal to proceed would be to encourage multiplicity of proceedings.

The application is accordingly dismissed with costs assessed at five guineas.