Principle Archive

A natural person is distinct from an artificial person (company). The company is in law a person distinct from the person who formed it with his…

Payment of filing fees is a precondition to or condition precedent to the court's assumption of jurisdiction. Where filing fees are not paid, a court will…

Where a court lacks jurisdiction, the proper order to make is striking out of the action and not dismissing the same.

Jurisdiction is the threshold of judicial power; parties cannot by connivance, acquiescence or collusion confer jurisdiction on a court. Where a court lacks jurisdiction, parties cannot…

There is no provision in the High Court Rules conferring powers on the Assistant Chief Registrar to extend time within which a party wishing to appeal…

In certain cases, evidence of opinion of an expert is relevant, but he must be called as a witness and must state his qualifications and satisfy…

A court is not bound by the evidence of a medical doctor, particularly when the evidence is contradictory in some material particular. A witness who lied…

To sustain a conviction for manslaughter, it must be established beyond reasonable doubt that it was the act of the accused that caused the death of…

Alibi is a defence seeking to persuade the court that the accused could not possibly be at the scene as he was somewhere else where people…

Where an accused person is unequivocally pinned to the locus in quo as one committing the offence, the defence of alibi no more avails the accused.…

One condition giving a court jurisdiction is that the action is initiated by due process of law. Where leave was not obtained before filing a cross-appeal,…

When a witness's evidence is of obvious exaggerated proportions entering the realm of fantasy or affront to intelligence or reckless, it should be ignored, consigned to…