JUDGMENT
The plaintiff and the 1st defendant assert rival claims to a property situate at New Weija and purchased by both from a common vendor. Unlike the plaintiff, there is evidence of overt acts of possession and occupation by the 1st defendant. The plaintiff will only succeed in an action for trespass against the 1st defendant if he proves that as between him and the 1st defendant, the right of possession is vested in him. In the absence of proof of right of immediate possession by the plaintiff and adverse possession by the 1st defendant the dispute should be resolved in favour of the 1st defendant who is in occupation.Possession is defined in OSBORN’S CONCISE LAW DICTIONARY 8th edition as physical detention coupled with the intention to hold the thing detained as one’s own. Possession has two elements; the physical possession of a thing and the intention to appropriate to oneself the exclusive use of the thing possessed. Possession is prima facie evidence of ownership.…