GBADAMOSI V. AJAO & ORS.

• Pages: 176-178

176

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NIGERIAN SUPREME COURT CASES

[1968] N.S.C.C.

GBADAMOSI V. AJAO & ORS.

5

CHIEF S.O. GBADAMOSI

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APPELLANT

V

M. ADEROGBA AJAO & ORS.

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RESPONDENTS

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SUIT NO. SC 462/1966

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

ADEMOLA,

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C.J.N.

COKER,

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J.S.C.

MADARIKAN,

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J.S.C.

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15

24th June, 1968.

Practice and Procedure - Recovery of loan - Judgment for defendants - Appeal

- Evidence Sufficiency of evidence - Inconsistencies and contradictions in

evidence - Judgment against the weight of evidence.

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ISSUE:

1. How should a trial judge assess and evaluate the evidence of a witness so as

to be able to base his judgment on it.

FACTS:

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The Respondents had been given judgment for £60,000 in the High Court

against the appellant as the amount owing on a loan granted by the deceased

father of the respondents to the appellant during the deceased's lifetime. The trial

judge had relied heavily on the inconsistent and contradictory evidence of one

Adekanbi, a witness for the appellants. This was the main ground of appeal.

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HELD:

When there are materials before a judge upon which he is to assess the evi-

dence of a witness, it is not enough for the judge to say that he believed the wit-

ness without a proper evaluation of the evidence upon which he based such belief.

The evidence of Adekanbi was so full of inconsistencies and should not have been

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relied upon.

Chief F.R.A. Williams

for the Appellant.

Mr. A. Ekineh

for the Respondents.

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ADEMOLA, C.J.N. (Delivering the Judgment of the Court): This is an appeal

from the judgment of £60,000 and 100 guineas costs entered against the appellant

in the High Court of Lagos on 12th November 1965. The action was instituted by

the personal representatives of Chief Joseph A. Ajao (deceased) for a claim for

an amount of £90,000 which the plaintiffs said was given on loan to the defendant

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without interest in 1959.

The plaintiffs' case before the learned judge was that their father Chief Ajao, in

his life time, was a friend of the defendant and that he made three loans of £30,000

each to him at different times in 1959. The first amount was by cheque No. 286903

of 13th July, 1959, the second was by cheque No. 286923 of 16th October 1959

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the stubs of which were discovered when the documents and papers of the de-

ceased were being sorted out. The third £30,000 was stated to have been paid to

the defendant in cash by the deceased. The only evidence relied upon for the pas-

sing of the cheques and the cash was that of one Adekanbi (second witness for