FAJUKE V. OGEDENGBE

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NIGERIAN SUPREME COURT CASES

[1968] N.S.C.C.

FAJUKE V. OGEDENGBE

JANET KEHINDE FAJUKE

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APPELLANT

V

EMMANUEL OLAGUNJU OGEDENGBE

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RESPONDENT

SUIT NO. SC 459/1965

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

ADEMOLA,

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C.J.N.

BRETT,

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J.S.C.

MADARI KAN,

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J.S.C.

29th February, 1968.

Courts - Customary Court - Appeal - High Court on appeal has no power to

set aside judgment given in an earlier case.

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ISSUE:

1. Whether a High Court has power to set aside a judgment in an earlier case,

which has not been appealed against.

FACTS:

This case originated in the Ilesha Grade A Customary Court where the present

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appellant was the defendant. The plaintiff's claim was for an account of rentals

collected by the defendant from the estate of their late father and for the paying

over to him of his share under native law and custom. He also sought an order

setting aside the old Ilesha Native Court order appointing the defendant as admin-

istratrix. The President of the Customary Court dismissed the two claims, holding

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that the defendant had in fact terminated the duties of administration and had filed

the necessary account, and that she had ceased to be administratrix since 1956.

On appeal to the High Court, the judge allowed the plaintiff's appeal and set

aside the judgment of the president. In considering the second claim, the judge

referred to Suit 252/56 (exhibit A) heard in the Native Court when the real proper-

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ties of the late father of the parties, were distributed among his children. From this

judgment the defendant appealed to the Supreme Court.

HELD:

1.

The action for the distribution of the real estate was exhibit "A"; the judgment in

that case had not been appealed against, and to treat it as a nullity without having

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given all the interested parties the opportunity of being heard was to fall into

the very error which the trial judge thought was fatal to the proceedings in that

case; consequently the appeal must be allowed.

Aoko,

for the appellant.

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Respondent absent and unrepresented.

ADEMOLA, C.J.N.

(delivering the judgment of the Court): This case originated

in the Ilesha Divisional Grade A Customary Court where the present appellant

was the defendant in each of the two suits consolidated and heard together. The

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claim in the first suit No. C.39/58 reads:-

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