Principle Archive

Credibility of a witness is a matter for a trial judge, not an appellate judge. The trial judge sees the witness; an appellate judge reads the…

Where the trial court has failed to address and determine a vital issue raised on the pleadings, the proper order to make is an order of…

Failure to serve process where service is required is a fundamental vice. It deprives the trial court of the necessary competence and jurisdiction to hear the…

Failure to serve process where service is required goes to the root of proper procedure in litigation. An order made in those circumstances is not a…

The procedure is totally covered by the provisions of section 32(1)(c) of the 1979 Constitution because what was done at that stage was that the court…

Under the rules, two conditions are prescribed for proof of service. First, there must be an affidavit of service. Second, such affidavit shall be produced at…

Questioning the validity of service of a writ of summons and non-service of a writ of summons amounts to a difference without a distinction. It is…

Where the reliefs claimed in the previous suit and the present suit are substantially the same, the subject-matter for adjudication is the same.

By the operation of the doctrine of estoppel per rem judicatam, the parties are precluded from relitigating the very issue that had been finally determined by…

Failure to satisfy any of the conditions for res judicata means failure of the plea in its entirety.

To sustain a plea of res judicata, the party pleading it must satisfy: (1) the parties (or their privies) are the same; (2) the issue and…

Wherever any body of persons having legal authority to determine questions affecting the rights of subjects, and having the duty to act judicially, act in excess…