Judgment
EJEMBI EKO, J.S.C.(Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Respondents were the Plaintiffs, at the trial Court. At their suit, inter alia, for declaration of title; the trial Court (per S. A. Adebajo, J.) on 21st July, 2001 affirmed the title of the Respondents in and over the disputed land. The Appellants were the defendants at the said trial High Court of Lagos State holden at Ikeja.
Notwithstanding the trial Court adjudging the Appellants as trespassers on the disputed land and its order of perpetual injunction restraining them jointly and/or severally from committing further acts of trespass on the land the subject matter of this appeal, the Appellants, as defendants, remain on the land defiantly, albeit contemptuously.
In January, 2002 the learned trial Judge, S. A. Adebajo, J, finding that the defendants/Appellants were adjudged trespassers refused to grant an order staying the execution of his judgment in their favour. The application for stay of execution pending appeal was then dismissed.
The purported appeal, on which the application for stay of execution pending the determination of the appeal, was premised on the Notice of Appeal filed on 10th August, 2001 containing only one ground; the omnibus ground complaining that “the judgment delivered on 27th day of July, 2001 is against the weight of evidence” as the only or sole ground of appeal. The Notice was settled by “TAIWO AJALA & Co”.
After Adebajo, J dismissed the application for stay of execution pending the determination of appeal; the lower Court on 28th October, 2002, upon further application of the Appellants, granted them a stay of execution for one year only to enable them expeditiously prosecute their appeal. The order for conditional stay had since November, 2003 lapsed. The Appellants later again, approached the Court of Appeal (the lower Court) to extend the said order.
The lower Court, satisfied that the Appellants had “not shown seriousness to prosecute this appeal” and that (‘it is not in the interest of justice to extend the earlier grant” of conditional stay of execution, dismissed the application on 1st December, 2003. The Appellants continued to stay put on the land in dispute in defiance of the order of perpetual injunction slammed on them by the trial Court.
