VINCENT U. EGHAREVBA V. DR OROBOR OSAGIE

OGEBE JSC (Delivering the Lead Judgment): The deceased John A. Osagie who has been replaced by his son Dr Orobor Osagie sued the appellant in Benin High Court over a piece of land which he had sold to him. His case was that he was allocated a piece of land measuring one hundred feet by two hundred feet by the Oba of Benin in 1963. In 1976, the appellant approached him for a transfer of a portion of the land measuring fifty by hundred feet. The appellant prepared a Deed of Conveyance for a portion of the land measuring a hundred by hundred feet which he mistakenly signed before noticing the discrepancy. He signed only a copy which he kept to himself and asked the appellant to go and correct the paper. He claimed that the appellant never paid any money for the land. The appellant fraudulently prepared an agreement for the sale of the land exhibit ‘F’ and registered it.

The appellant’s case was that on 24 February 1976, the respondent transferred part of his land measuring a hundred fee…