LEGAL PRINCIPLE: STATUTORY INTERPRETATION – Retrospective Legislation – Words Referring to Future Conduct Cannot Apply to Past Acts
PRINCIPLE STATEMENT
Looking at the provision of Section 1, the right of action has just been created. Therefore there can be no question of the possibility of exercising that right before it came into being. The right to file an action is only exercisable from the date of the creation of the right of action by the Edict not in the past.
RATIO DECIDENDI (SOURCE)
Per Uwaifo, JSC, in Adesanoye & Ors v. Adewole & Anor (2000) NLC-361998(SC) at p. 15; Paras D–E.
"Looking at the provision of Section 1, the right of action has just been created. Therefore there can be no question of the possibility of exercising that right before it came into being. The right to file an action is only exercisable from the date of the creation of the right of action by the Edict not in the past."
EXPLANATION / SCOPE
A statute creating a new right of action operates prospectively only. Such a right cannot be exercised before the statute came into force because it did not exist. The legislature may create new rights, but those rights only become enforceable from the effective date of the enactment. Courts will not imply retrospective operation to allow actions based on rights that did not exist at the time of the events giving rise to the claim. The absence of a right at the relevant time precludes any assertion of retrospective exercise, as one cannot do what the law did not then permit.