Peter Enahoro V. O’cerons Limited & Ors (2014)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report – COURT OF APPEAL

CHINWE EUGENIA IYIZOBA, J.C.A.(Delivering the Leading Judgment)

This is an appeal against the judgment of Oshodi J. of the High Court of Lagos State Ikeja Judicial Division, in Suit No ID/486/07 delivered on 31st day of March 2009 wherein his Lordship dismissed the appellant’s claim for possession and damages against the 1st Respondent in respect of the disputed property on the ground that the appellant is estopped from claiming ownership of the property having earlier relinquished ownership to his deceased ex wife as he indicated in Exhibit H, his letter to his daughter, the 4th Respondent.

The Appellant’s case is that in 1962 he was allocated a plot of land described as Plot 5 Block 19, Extension to Shomolu Scheme, Ikeja now known as No. 4 Sylvia Crescent Anthony Village, Lagos, by the defunct Ikeja Planning Authority. He built a two-storey house and boy’s quarters on the land and moved into the property with his wife and family sometime in December, 1962.

The Appellant lived on the property with his family until sometime in 1966 when he was allegedly forced into self-exile, after armed soldiers came looking for him during the crises that led to the Nigerian Civil War. While in exile, his wife, Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro, and children, the 2nd – 4th Respondents continued to stay in the property. In the course of his life in exile, the Appellant’s marriage broke down, leading to a divorce.

The Appellant claimed that his divorced wife, and children, subsequently moved out of the disputed property, and the same was rented out to the knowledge and consent of the Appellant who had agreed that the rents be kept by his former wife in lieu of alimony. The Appellant claimed that on the death of his ex-wife in 2004, the property was temporarily occupied by some of her relatives, to the knowledge of the Appellant. They subsequently vacated the property leaving it unoccupied.

The Appellant further claimed he found out through his brother and Attorney-in-Fact that his house was unlawfully occupied by the 1st Respondent, who was running a Guest House on the premises. The Appellant caused statutory notices to be served on the 1st Respondent for the recovery of the premises. Upon the refusal of the 1st Respondent to vacate the premises, the Appellant caused a writ of summons to issue against him for possession and damages.

On the application of the 2nd – 4th Respondents, the appellant’s children by his ex wife, they were joined as Defendants in the suit.

The 1st Respondent’s case is that he is a tenant in the property in dispute and that he was put in possession by the 2nd – 4th Respondents in their capacity as the beneficiaries of the Estate of late Mrs. Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro, the late owner of the property.

The 2nd – 4th Respondents’ case is that the property was the joint property of their mother the late Mrs Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro and their father the Appellant; that the late Mrs Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro later became the exclusive owner of the property and that by virtue thereof the 2nd- 4th Respondents were entitled to let out the property to the 1st Respondent.

They claimed that the Appellant by his letter dated 4th March, 1998 addressed to the 4th Respondent and later admitted in evidence as Exhibit ‘H’ renounced ownership of the property in dispute in favour of their mother, the late Mrs Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro.

They relied also on the various acts of ownership exercised by their late mother over the years in respect of the property and the fact that for over 41 years the Appellant, knowing that their late mother and they had exercised exclusive rights of ownership over the property took no steps to reverse the situation. He must therefore be deemed to have acquiesced in their ownership of the property.

Issues were joined on the contested facts, and after trial, the Appellant’s claim was dismissed on the ground that he was estopped from claiming ownership of the property, having relinquished his interest in the property to his ex wife. Dissatisfied with the judgment, the Appellant appealed to this Court by a Notice of Appeal containing 3 (three) grounds of appeal out of which he distilled three issues for determination. The issues are:

(1) Whether from the factual circumstances of this case, an estoppel was created, and was subsisting, barring the Appellant from claiming possession of the contested property against the 2nd – 4th Respondents.

(2) Whether the 2nd – 4th Respondents as 2nd – 4th Defendants at the Lower court discharged the burden on them to prove that the contested property was jointly owned by the Appellant and their mother, late Mrs. Cassimera Aderemi Enahoro.