MRS. V. O. BUCKNOR-MACLEAN & ANOR V. INLAKS LIMITED

IDIGBE, JSC (DELIVERING THE LEADING JUDGMENT): This appeal, brought here by leave of this court, challenges the validity of the unanimous judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal holden in Lagos (Ogunkeye, Okagbue and Uthman Mohammed, JJ.C.A.) - hereinafter referred to as “the Court of Appeal” - which reversed the judgment of the High Court of Lagos State (Adefarasin J. as he then was) in suit L.D./904/71 by which he found in favour of the claims of the appellants, the plaintiffs in the said suit.

The facts which gave rise to the claims aforesaid as revealed from the proceedings in the High Court are, indeed, within a small compass and may be summarised thus: Mrs. Sabina Marian Bucknor, the mother of the first appellant, was until the 4th day of March, 1968, the registered owner in fee simple, on record, of the parcel of land situate at Martins Street, Lagos and A known as “Plot 53 in sub-area 3 of the Lagos Central Planning Scheme”, under title No. L03181 (hereinafter referred to as …