Principle Archive

Amendment is allowed to prevent injustice, but not if it will cause injustice to the other party or violate the rule of audi alteram partem. The…

Although an appellate court has inherent powers of amendment in proper cases, such powers are exercised restrictively on appeal. Generally, they are exercised to correct obvious…

The principle quic quid plantator solo solo cedit means that once a person is adjudged the rightful owner of land, the land together with whatever is…

Evidence led during cross-examination on issues joined is not inadmissible merely because such evidence is not supported by the pleading of the party eliciting the evidence.…

Evidence procured from cross-examination is as valid and authentic as evidence from examination-in-chief. Both have the potency of relevancy, and relevancy is the heart of admissibility.…

Although specific performance will not be readily granted where damages are adequate, in a contract for the sale of land, damages cannot adequately compensate a party.…

A party claiming family ownership of property must identify the origin and status of the property and lead credible evidence as to how it is owned…

A contract for the sale of land under customary law does not require writing as a prerequisite for a valid disposition. Payment of purchase price and…

Where a trial court properly evaluates evidence and makes findings fully supported by the evidence and not perverse, the appellate court cannot substitute its own views.…

Where the evaluation of evidence leading to a trial judge's finding is perverse (not borne out by the evidence), an appellate judge may reverse that evaluation…

Failure to cross-examine a witness on a material point amounts to tacit acceptance of the truth of that evidence. It is improper for a defendant not…

Under section 224 of the 1979 Constitution, an appeal lies as of right from the Customary Court of Appeal to the Court of Appeal only on…