LUKA LINUS MARGIM (THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF LINUS MARGIMA) V. KEVINA LINUS MARGIMA & ORS.

EBIOWEI TOBI, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Appellant and the 1st - 5th Respondents are from the same family as they are all children of Late Linus Margima. Their father died intestate and three plots of his properties were sold by the 1st - 5th Respondent to the 6th Respondent. The Appellant as claimant at the lower Court says that the subject property is part of the family properties of the Margima family which he has the authority to administer as the first born of the deceased. It is the case of the Appellant at the lower Court that the sale of the subject property to the 6th Respondent by the 1st - 5th Respondent is void as it violates the well established principle of how family properties can be validly sold. The 1st - 5th Respondent recognized that the property was family property on the demise of their father but that the property has been shared to them and as such they had the right to sell same to the 6th Respondent as it is no longer a family property. In …