Judgment
TIJJANI ABUBAKAR, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal is against the judgment of the Court of Appeal Owerri Division, delivered on the 22nd day of March, 20131 wherein the Appellant’s appeal against the judgment of the trial Court was unanimously dismissed by the lower Court.
The claim of the Respondent in this appeal as Plaintiff at the trial Court as per the writ of summons taken out on the 11th day of January 1989 reads as follows: 1. N1,000.00 being damages for trespass to the plaintiff’s parcel of land known as and called “ALA NWOKWU” in plaintiff’s possession situate at Umunyado Irete within jurisdiction 2. Injunction restraining the defendant by herself, servant and/or agent from committing further acts of trespass on the said land.
The facts grounding this appeal are that the land subject of this appeal known and called “Ala Nwokwu” is an integral part of a larger parcel of land situate at Umungada Irete. The Plaintiff’s claim at the trial Court is that the land in dispute was a gift made to him by his father, Chukwunyere about 40 years prior to the commencement of the suit at the trial Court. The Plaintiff also claimed that his own father who gifted the land to him inherited the land from his grandfather Onyeachugwo, a descendant of one Ogbuehi Akuzuo, the father of Onyeachugwo and Okenwa.
Plaintiffs claim before the trial Court was therefore that the land was given to him by his father who also inherited the land from his father.
The defendant Appellant in this appeal on the other hand claims that the said land known as “Ala Nwokwu” is a family land belonging to the Plaintiff’s larger family known as Umuogbuehi. That the said land was sold to the Defendant Appellant by the head of the Urnuogbuehi family one Michael Okenwa and other principal family members. The Defendant therefore claimed that the land was sold to her by the family of the Plaintiff and that she was issued purchase receipt tendered as Exhibit C at the trial.
Both parties tendered survey plans at the trial and were admitted in evidence by consent of the contending parties. In 1977, the Appellant started to erect a building on the said land, the Respondent along with members of his family closed up the foundation. The Appellant again started to erect a wall on the land, again the Respondent pulled it down, the matter eventually went to High Court of Imo State, Owerri.
