Section 170 Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959

Section 170 of the Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959 is about Protection of purchasers claiming under certain void appointments. It provides as follows:

(1) An instrument purporting to exercise a power of appointment over property,
which, in default of and subject to any appointment, is held in trust for a class or
number of persons of whom the appointee is one, shall not (save as hereinafter
provided) be void on the ground of fraud on the power as against a purchaser in good faith:

Provided that, if the interest appointed exceeds, in amount or value, the interest in
such property to which immediately before the execution of the instrument the
appointee was presumptively entitled under the trust in default of appointment,
having regard to any advances made in his favour and to any hotchpot provision, the protection afforded by this section to a purchaser shall not extend to such excess.

(2) In this section “a purchaser in good faith” means a person dealing with an
appointee of the age of not less than twenty-five years for valuable consideration in money or money’s worth, and without notice of the fraud, or of any circumstances from which, if reasonable inquiries had been made, the fraud might have been discovered.

(3) Persons deriving title under any purchaser entitled to the benefit of this section shall be entitled to the like benefit.

(4) This section applies only to dealings effected after the commencement of this Law.