THE QUEEN V. DISTRICT OFFICER & ORS

• Pages: 35-41

THE QUEEN V. DISTRICT OFFICER & ORS.

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THE QUEEN V. DISTRICT OFFICER & ORS.

5

THE QUEEN

V

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1. DISTRICT OFFICER

2. ADIE OKO FOR KUTIA

PEOPLE

(Ex parte ETI ATEM)

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FEDERAL SUPREME COURT.

ADEMOLA,

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C.J.F.

BRETT,

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F.J.

UNSWORTH,

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F.J.

23rd February, 1961.

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RESPONDENT

APPELLANTS

SUIT NO. FSC 23/1960.

Administrative Law - Courts - Certiorari - Tribunal exceeding jurisdiction -

Application by aggrieved party - Native Courts - Review by district officer

- review introducing a person not a party to case - Native Courts Ordinance,

S. 28 (1)(a).

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ISSUES:

1.

Whether a district officer reviewing Native Court proceedings under Section 28

of the Native Court Ordinance and thereby determining questions affecting the

rights of subjects, has a duty to act judicially. Whether

certiarari

would lie against

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such an officer.

2.

Whether a tribunal that exceeds its jurisdiction or gives a decision which the

High Court conceives to be bad on its face, is subject to certiorari.

3.

Whether an application for

certiorari

made by a party aggrieved by a tribunal's

decision ought to be granted as a matter of right.

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FACTS:

In 1955, Adie Oko of Kutia (2nd Appellant above) brought a personal action

for damages against a man of Okorotung for felling trees on Adie Oko's lands.

The claim was dismissed and on review of that case, the District Officer confirmed

the judgment and ordered a survey and plan to be made to show the positions of

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the lands allocated to the various tenants. The submitted plan was unsatisfactory,

and, in 1957, in the same matter the District Officer ordered an interpleader of all

the claimants to the lands. In the same year another action in the same native court

was instituted by the Okorotung people against the Ukpe people asking that the

boundary between their lands be demarcated. The parties agreed on the bound-

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ary, and the court so fixed it. The District Officer reviewing this case ordered "all

interested parties" - the Mbganage, the Alege, the Ukpe, and the Okorotung - "to

interplead", and joined them as parties; on the 17th July, 1957, he awarded the

land shown on the plan to the Kutia people - who were not a party to this case -

and ordered all Okorotung people on that land to move out and not to molest the

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Kutia people within it any further. Under an application dated the 31st December,

1957, the Okorotung people, through Eti Atem, the above applicant, obtained an

order

nisi

in

certiorari

proceedings to quash the District Officer's order on the

ground that he had exceeded his powers under section 28(1)(a).