LEGAL PRINCIPLE: CIVIL PROCEDURE — Pleadings — Uncontradicted Averments Admitted Without Need for Proof
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
Averments not specifically denied in the statement of defence are deemed admitted. Where such averments are not traversed, no evidence would be necessary. The court should accept the pleaded rate or fact as conforming with justice, not reject it entirely.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Uwaifo, JSC, in Fortune International Bank Plc v. Pegasus Trading Office & Ors (2004) NLC-1442001(SC) at pp. 12–13; Paras D–B.
"The above averments were not specifically denied in the statement of defence. Ordinarily, since the averments already referred to were not traversed, no evidence would have been necessary. … It is clear on the undenied averment in the statement of claim that interest of 11.5% was pleaded and claimed. It would simply have been a matter of course for the court below to accept 11.5% which is the rate admitted on the pleadings. That is what conforms with justice and not a total rejection of interest rate."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
Under pleading rules, facts not specifically denied or traversed in the statement of defence are deemed admitted. No evidence is required to prove such facts; the court must accept them as established. This serves avoiding unnecessary proof of uncontested matters and promoting judicial efficiency. The court cannot reject a pleaded and undenied fact or rate simply because no evidence was led, as the admission on pleadings dispenses with proof.