Peter Chinweze & Anor V. Veronica Masi (Mrs.) & Anor (1989)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

OPUTA, J.S.C. 

This is a rather curious and intriguing case. The plaintiffs now appellants are claiming as “beneficiaries of the Estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze deceased.” There is no dispute that the appellants are the children of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze deceased. The appellants who were born many, many years after the death of Peter Chinweze the husband of Elizabeth Chinweze never claimed to be the children of Peter Chinweze by the operation of any “Native Law and Custom” or natural law , let alone English law.

As beneficiaries of the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased) the appellants claimed against Mrs. Veronica Masi, their half sister the following reliefs:

1. A declaration that the house situate at No.5 Ogui Road, Enugu is the bona fide property of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased) of whom the Plaintiffs are beneficiaries thereof.
2. A declaration that the Defendant is a Trustee de son tort in respect of the estate of the said Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased).
3. A declaration that any transaction not in the interest of the beneficiaries in respect of the said No.5 Ogui Road is null and void and without effect whatsoever.
4. Injunction restraining the Defendant, her servants or agents from any act of interference with the said property contrary to the interest of the beneficiaries and from dealing with it in any manner whatsoever as if it was her property.

In the two affidavits seeking the approval of the court for the named plaintiffs (the appellants) to represent all the other beneficiaries, no mention was ever made of Peter Obikwesi Chinweze, the late husband of Elizabeth Chinweze deceased, the father of the 1st Defendant Mrs. Veronica Masi and the original lessee of the property designated No.5 Ogui Road, Enugu, now in dispute. This is Stage 1.

Stage 2 opened with the application of Eddy C. Ibe (under Order IV Rule 5(1) High Court Rules, Laws of Eastern Nigeria 1963 applicable in Anambra State) to join as a party to the pending proceedings between plaintiffs/appellants and their sister the 1st Defendant. In his affidavit in support Eddy C. Ibe deposed inter alia:

“2. The case is in respect of the property situate at and known as No.5 Ogui Road, Enugu which I bought from the Defendant on or about 20th June, 1975 for N10,000.00 and the Defendant receipted for money paid for it.

7. Before I bought the property from the Defendant, I made a search in the Lands Registry to ascertain whether or not the Defendant owned the property and I was satisfied after that search that she alone had, the exclusive and unfettered ownership, of the property.
8. The instrument of the Defendants’ title is registered in the Lands Registry Enugu as No. 64 at page 64 in Volume 254.
9. After the Defendant sold the property to me, the plaintiffs applied for Letters of Administration from the Probate Registry Enugu in respect of the property which letters were refused them following my entering a caveat to prohibit its grant to them.
10. The Defendants were advised by the Probate Registrar Enugu to take out a Probate action against me in court but this the Defendants (sic) had failed to do but instead have pressurized their half sister, the Defendant, to repudiate the contract of sale of the property to me.
11. My interest in this property cannot be fully and adequately defended if I am not made a party to this suit.
12. The plaintiffs already know that I bought the property since 1975 but in order to get an easy judgment they have decided to collude with their sister by suing her and not making me a party to the suit. ”

The plaintiffs filed a counter-affidavit which did not counter, save for bare general denials, the allegations of fact deposed to by the intervener Eddy C. Ibe.

The trial High Court then joined Eddy C. Ibe as 2nd Defendant.

Pleadings were then ordered, filed and exchanged. Since the action of the plaintiffs was filed in their capacity as “beneficiaries of the Estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased)” it is necessary to have a hard look at the pleadings to see if and how the plaintiffs traced the devolution of the property No.5 Ogui Road from its original lessee, Peter Obikwesi Chinweze, to Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze deceased and whether or not on her death the property now in dispute formed part of the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze – the root of the plaintiffs’ title. It may here be convenient to set out some relevant paragraphs of the plaintiffs’ Statement of Claim:

“1. The plaintiffs are the children of Elizabeth Chinweze Mrs. (deceased) and sue for themselves, for and on behalf of the beneficiaries of the Estate of Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased).

2. The 1st Defendant is one of the daughters of Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze (deceased).
3. By a deed of lease dated 1st March 1935, registered as No. 82 at page 82 in Volume 32 of the Registry of Deeds the property known as Plot 5 Block 1 Eastern Native Location, Enugu was leased to Mr. Peter Obikwesi Chinweze deceased.
4. By a deed of Assignment dated 6th day of July, 1959 the Federal Administrator General as Administrator of the Estate of Peter Chinweze (deceased) assigned the said plot 5 Block 1 Eastern Native Location, Enugu to Elizabeth Chinweze (now deceased) for herself and on behalf of Veronica Chinweze who was a minor. The deed of assignment was registered as No. 64 at page 64 in volume 254 of the Land Registry in the office at Enugu.
5. The children of Elizabeth Chinweze grew up to know the property in dispute as their property to the knowledge and consent of the 1st Defendant.
6. The plaintiffs on record applied for letters of administration of the property in dispute.
7. The plaintiffs from birth up to date have lived in the premises and are still living therein as the family property and have never paid any rent or tribute to 1st Defendant. ”

From the above paragraphs 7 and 22 it looks as though the entire case of the plaintiffs is predicated on the fact – not that the property in dispute belonged to Elizabeth Chinweze on her death as a hereditament – but that “they grew up to know the property as their property” and that they had all along lived there. In their statement of claim the plaintiffs did not claim through Peter to whom the property was originally leased. One then wonders the locus standi of the plaintiffs and their Quo Warranto to bring this action. I will deal with this aspect of the case later.

After due hearing (and it was an unwarranted luxury even to pave heard evidence in this case) the learned trial Judge found as follows or more accurately recorded the undisputed facts of this case as follows:

1. The property in dispute is state land. It was originally leased to the father of the 1st Defendant, Peter Obikwesi Chinweze now deceased.
2. Peter Obikwesi Chinweze died on the 17th August, 1939 intestate (see Ex. 2).
3. The 1st Defendant was en ventre sa mere at the time of her father’s death.
4. After her husband’s death his wife Elizabeth Chinweze did not remarry but she however “succeeded in gathering seven other children including the plaintiffs. The 1st plaintiff was born in 1943.” (Four years after Peter’s death).
5. The plaintiffs and the alleged beneficiaries (except the 1st Defendant) are not the children of the marriage of the late Peter Obikwesi Chinweze and the deceased Mrs. Elizabeth.
6. The Federal Administrator-General was granted Letters of Administration over the estate of late Peter O. Chinweze on 31st July, 1940. The estate included the property at No.5 Ogui Road now in dispute.
7. The Federal Administrator-General administered the estate from 1940 until 1959 when by a deed of assignment he assigned the property now in dispute to Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze and Veronica Chinweze the 1st Defendant.

From these undisputed facts the learned trial Judge then held that”

”………. the conveyance to the assignees in Ex. 2 does not in any way show words of severance and cannot but be regarded as a joint tenancy. Mrs. Elizabeth Chinweze held the legal estate in trust for herself and the 1st Defendant alone. When she died, her interest in the property in dispute did not enure to her estate but instead accrued to the 1st Defendant as the surviving joint tenant. The plaintiffs therefore, had nothing to inherit. They are strangers to the property in dispute and consequently, have no interest to assert. In other words, the plaintiffs have no locus stand to bring the present action”