LEGAL PRINCIPLE: STATUTORY INTERPRETATION – Retrospective Legislation – Conditions Precedent Created After Commencement of Action – Impossibility of Compliance
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
It is, in our opinion, clear that the Act does not apply to the present bill of sale. It appears to us impossible to read it as so applying, for it enacts that a bill of sale shall be registered within seven days after its execution. But the bill of sale in the present case was executed more than seven clear days before the Act came into operation, so that to read it as applying to this bill of sale would be making it enact an impossibility.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Uwaifo, JSC, in Adesanoye & Ors v. Adewole & Anor (2000) NLC-361998(SC) at pp. 18–19; Paras E–A.
"It is, in our opinion, clear that the Act does not apply to the present bill of sale. It appears to us impossible to read it as so applying, for it enacts that a bill of sale shall be registered within seven days after its execution. But the bill of sale in the present case was executed more than seven clear days before the Act came into operation, so that to read it as applying to this bill of sale would be making it enact an impossibility."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
A statute imposing a new condition precedent cannot be applied retrospectively where compliance would be impossible. If the condition requires an act to be performed within a specified period from an event that occurred before the statute took effect, the condition cannot be fulfilled. Courts avoid interpretations that lead to absurdity or impossibility. This reinforces the presumption against retrospectivity: where retrospective application would render compliance impossible, the legislature cannot have intended such operation unless clearly stated. The law does not require what it makes impossible.