OLORUNFEMI V ASHO

Issue:

This judgment relates to an appeal and a cross-appeal from the decision of the Court of Appeal (Kolawole, Tobi and Ubeazonu, JJ .C.A.). The respondents (the plaintiffs) sued the appellants (the defendants) in the High Court of Lagos State claiming damages for trespass allegedly committed by the defendants on land at Akesan Village sometime in December 1983 and injunction. The defendants, on their own, counterclaimed against the plaintiffs for a declaration of customary right of occupancy to the land in dispute, damages for trespass and injunction. The High Court (Onalaja, J., as he then was) after taking evidence on the claim and the counterclaim, dismissed the plaintiffs claim in its entirety. He granted the declaration sought by the defendants and restrained the plaintiffs from further acts of trespass on the land claimed by the defendants. He rejected the defendants claim for damages for trespass. The plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Appeal from the whole decision of the High Court while the defendants appealed from that part of the decision dismissing their claim for damages for trespass. The Court of Appeal dismissed the plaintiffs' appeal from the dismissal of their claim, but allowed it in regard to the order for injunction made by the High Court on the defendants counterclaim. It dismissed the cross-appeal in its entirety. The parties now appealed and cross-appealed to the Supreme Court.