Mrs Olufunmilayo Raimi Adeyemo v. Hon. Justice Demola Banana (Rtd.) & Ors (2024)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

YARGATA BYENCHIT NIMPAR, JCA (Delivering the leading ruling)

This ruling is premised on the application brought by the appellant/applicant dated and filed on the 24th of November 2023. The applicant prayed the court for the following orders:

1. An order of this honourable court granting leave to the appellant/applicant to rely on the further affidavit, particularly exhibit D marked and attached to the said further affidavit, already filed and served on the 1st and 2nd respondents by way of additional evidence at the hearing of this appeal.

And for such order or further orders as this honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this case.

The grounds upon which the application is predicted are as follows:

i. That the appellant/applicant as plaintiff commenced this action at the lower court on 7th August 2012 via originating summons.

ii. That the lower court entertained the originating summons on 27th May, 2013 and delivered its judgment on 22nd July 2013.

iii. That in the above judgment, the lower court held that the appellant/applicant is the lawful wife of the deceased husband (Late Engr. Rashidi Raimi Adeyemo) by virtue of the marriage contracted between them at the Federal Marriage Registry, Ikoyi, Lagos on 24th October, 1985 but held regardless that the codicil dated 6th June 2006 prepared by the 1st respondent herein which excluded the appellant/applicant and her children was valid.

iv. That it was the appellant/applicant’s contention that the purported codicil dated 6th June, 2006 was invalid, illegal and unenforceable because the deceased did not have a previous will, upon which the codicil could properly and validly be amended or revoked,

v. That in response to the above, the 1st respondent (a retired Judge) who purportedly prepared the codicil contended in one breadth that the deceased instructed him to prepare a Will, and that he did prepare a Will, and yet in another breadth in his counter-affidavit he deposed that the deceased never returned any Will to him and he did not see the contents of same after it v/as allegedly given to the deceased’s daughter, who is a lawyer for further action before he prepared the purported codicil.

vi. Curiously, and in spite of the above material contradictions, the court in its judgment held that the 1st respondent proved that the deceased had a previous Will which was property revoked by the codicil dated 6th June 2006 and that same was therefore legal, valid and enforceable.

vii. That since the 22nd of July 2013, when the lower court delivered its judgment, the appellant/applicant who was born on 24th October, 1938 (84 years of age) and her children have been deprived of any benefits accruing from the estate of her late husband and father, to which she contributed both financially and morally, by the executors till date.

viii. That on account of the untold financial hardship, psychological and mental trauma, the appellant/applicant had to institute suit: number: AB/ 653/2020 before the High Court of Ogun State against the purported executors appointed in the said codicil who have been unlawfully dissipating the estate of the appellant’s late husband and who have been receiving rents from the properties comprising the estate.

ix. That sometime in December 2021, appellant got wind to her utmost shock and astonishment, of the fact that her late husband prepared a Will which was allegedly lodged at the High Court of Lagos State Probate Office in Ikeja and without precise particulars,

x. That the appellant/applicant who was in the United Kingdom at the time immediately instructed her counsel to launch a blind search at the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja Probate Office since she did not have the particulars of the said Will, nor its file number, nor year of lodgment, with the name of her husband Engr. Rashidi Ayinde Raimi Adeyemo, with the aim of ascertaining the truth of the news.