ALHAJI LASISI OLADIPO & ORS V. GBOLAHAN S. IFALEYE

OBIETONBARA DANIEL-KALIO, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal is over the ruling of the High Court of Ogun State which refused an application to consider in limine whether the action before it was statute barred.

The Defendants in the lower court (the Appellants in this appeal) had in their Statement of Defence pleaded that the Claimant's action - a land matter - is statute barred. Having so pleaded, the Appellants filed a Motion on Notice before the lower court which raised the question of the matter being statute barred as a point of law. The trial court heard the Motion on Notice and delivered its ruling on 13/8/2009. In the said ruling, the trial court decided that Order 22 rule 2 of the Ogun State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2008 allows for points of law raised on the pleadings to be disposed of at or after the trial of a case and that there is no compulsion that a Judge must hear such point of law before trial. The court also decided that justice will be…