AJOSE V. AGUSTO

• Pages: 7-13

AJOSE V. AGUSTO

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AJOSE V. AGUSTO

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BISIRIYU AJOSE

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APPELLANT

V

10 1. H.A. AGUSTO

2.

B.A. YUSUF

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RESPONDENTS

3.

S.A. YESUFU

SUIT NO. SC 565/1965

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

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BAIRAMIAN,

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J.S.C.

LEWIS,

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J.S.C.

COKER,

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J.S.C.

11th January, 1968.

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Landlord and Tenant - Title to land - Magistrate's Cowl - Jurisdiction - Question

of title to be raised bona fide - Tenant disputing mesne landlord's title -

Tenant being threatened by eviction by overlord of land - For tenant to

succeed, the overlord must have good title to eject and demand to exercise

that right.

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ISSUE:

1.

Can an overlord who has a good title to eject the occupier of demised premises,

demand to exercise the right, and if so, what can the tenant plead to maintain

his possession.

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FACTS:

The plaintiffs' claim in the Magistrate's Court was for possession, arrears of

rent, and mesne profits. The defendant as tenant to the plaintiffs, pleaded that he

was not liable for rent arrears and that he resists possession, his evidence was that

he had become the tenant of the superior landlord. The defendant had been oc-

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cupying the house for years as the tenant of a deceased person who built it on

land of which he was the lessee, after that person's death he paid rent to one or

another of the plaintiffs; eventually he stopped paying and they brought the ac-

tion. Upon an agreement with plaintiffs No. 2 and No. 3 he commenced repairs

on the house, during which representatives of Ojuwoye Community and Alashe

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family, came and prevented him. As a result of what the Alashe family told him,

he paid them £20 for a lease to him personally and the family gave him a deed of

lease. The Magistrate gave judgment for the plaintiffs, saying that the identity of

the overlord was not clear, and that the lease the defendant took from the Alashe

family was an afterthought. The defendant's appeal to the High Court was dis-

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missed and he appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that he was now the ten-

ant of the overlord, and no longer the under- tenant of the mesne lord.

HELD:

1. If a party having a good title to eject the occupier of demised premises goes

there and demands to exercise that right, and the tenant says, "I will change the

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title under which I now hold, and will consent to hold under you," that, according

to good sense, is capable for being well pleaded as an expulsion. But the party

must have a good title to eject and demand to exercise the right. In the case in

hand there was no evidence that the Alashe family had a good title to eject; and

on the defendant's evidence that family was not seeking to eject but only to