LEGAL PRINCIPLE: EVIDENCE LAW – Admissibility of Previous Statements – Statement Against Proprietary Interest of Deceased Person
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
Statements, written or verbal, of relevant facts made by a person who is dead are themselves relevant facts in the following cases: (c) when the statement is against the pecuniary or proprietary interest of the person making it and the said person had peculiar means of knowing the matter and had no interest to misrepresent it. The evidence of a deceased witness given in a previous proceeding, which is against the proprietary interest of his family, is admissible under section 33(1)(c) of the Evidence Act where the witness represented his family in the previous proceeding and had peculiar means of knowing the matter.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Karibi-Whyte, JSC, in Alli & Anor v. Alesinloye & Ors (2000) NLC-961994(SC) at pp. 28–29; Paras C–D.
"Statements, written or verbal, of relevant facts made by a person who is dead are themselves relevant facts in the following cases: (c) when the statement is against the pecuniary or proprietary interest of the person making it and the said person had peculiar means of knowing the matter and had no interest to misrepresent it. The evidence of a deceased witness given in a previous proceeding, which is against the proprietary interest of his family, is admissible under section 33(1)(c) of the Evidence Act where the witness represented his family in the previous proceeding and had peculiar means of knowing the matter."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
Section 33(1)(c) of the Evidence Act permits admission of statements by deceased persons against their pecuniary or proprietary interest. Admissibility requires: (1) the statement was against the maker’s interest; (2) the maker had peculiar means of knowledge; and (3) the maker had no motive to misrepresent. Where the deceased represented his family in prior proceedings, his testimony against family proprietary interest is admissible against successors. This exception recognizes that persons do not typically make statements adverse to their own or their family’s property interests unless truthful.