OGUNDAIRO & ORS V. OKANLAWON & ORS.

• Pages: 285-287

OGUNDAIRO & ORS V. OKANLAWON & ORS.

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285

OGUNDAIRO & ORS V. OKANLAWON & ORS.

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OGUNDAIRO (the Bale of

ljako-Orile) and Ors.

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V

I.B. OKANLAWON and Ors.

SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA

BRETT,

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J.S.C.

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TAYLOR,

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J.S.C.

BAIRAMIAN,

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J.S.C.

2nd December, 1963

APPELLANTS

RESPONDENTS

SUIT NO. FSC 163/1962.

Practice and Procedure - Declaratory Judgments - Discretion - Ground for refusing

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declaration of title - Equity on uncertain area within land in dispute.

ISSUE:

1. Whether it is a wrong exercise of a court's discretion to grant a declaration of

title to an area of land which includes portions over which the defendant had

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successfully asserted his ownership in a previous suit.

FACTS:

The Plaintiffs sued for a declaration of title to an area of land; the defendants

alleged that they had won a previous suit between the parties; the judge held that

the previous decision related to part of the land in dispute before him, but as it

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lacked certainty, it could not be used as

res judicata;

and he gave judgment for

the plaintiffs.

HELD:

The effect of the judgment was to grant a declaration of title to the plaintiffs to

an area which included portions over which the defendants had successfully as-

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serted their ownership in a previous suit; and as declaratory judgments are dis-

cretionary, this was a case in which a declaration of title to the whole area should

have been refused.

Chief 0. Moore, Q.C.

(with him

0. Esan, and Miss Ebube)

for the Appellants.

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N. Oba Aiyeola,

for the Respondents.

TAYLOR, J.S.C.

(Delivering the Judgment of the Court) The plaintiffs in the

Court below were representatives of Awaiye Village and the defendants of

Ijako-Orile Village. The claim was for a declaration of title to Awaiye farmland and

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an injunction to restrain the defendants, their servants and agents from further

trespass to the land in dispute. The plaintiffs' case on the pleadings was that their

ancestor Badejoko was the first settler on the land in dispute and that the defendants

are the owners of the land on the Western side of the lniya stream referred to as

Ijiako-Orile farmland. The I niya Stream, the plaintiffs say, is their natural boundary

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with the defendants. The defendants, on the other hand, plead as follows in

paragraph 1 of their Statement of Defence:-