Principle Archive

An appellate court cannot allow an appeal that was never before it; where an appeal has been withdrawn, the court has no jurisdiction to determine it.

A claim under a lawful contract will not fail by reason of illegality in another contract if the plaintiff can establish his case without reference to…

To establish a breach of contract for failure to remit funds, the plaintiff does not need to allege and prove a contract with a third party;…

Section 417 of CAMA does not prohibit a company from proceeding with an action against another person; it prohibits, subject to leave of court, proceeding with…

A defendant relying on illegality as a defence must specifically plead the statute contravened and the facts constituting the illegality; a cardinal rule of pleading is…

A stranger to an alleged illegal transaction will not normally be allowed to raise a defence of illegality founded on a transaction to which he is…

A survey plan is not necessary in all cases of declaration of title; where there is no difficulty in identifying the land in dispute, a declaration…

Identification of land in dispute may be done by filing a survey plan reflecting all features of the land and showing clearly the precise boundaries.

The evaluation of evidence and ascription of probative value are the primary functions of the trial court; an appellate court should not substitute its own views…

Appellate courts must not be too strict with matters of procedure or technicality when dealing with appeals from Area Courts; the object is that the real…

An appellate court should not ordinarily interfere with a trial court's findings of fact unless the trial court failed to properly use the opportunity of seeing…

Not every mistake or slip in a judgment results in reversal; only substantial errors that occasion a miscarriage of justice warrant appellate interference.