What Is the Required Standard of Proof in Matrimonial Causes?

CASE TITLE:  ADESOJI v. AJETOMOBI (2024) LPELR-61757 (CA)

JUDGMENT DATE: 12TH MARCH, 2024

PRACTICE AREA: MATRIMONIAL CAUSES

LEAD JUDGMENT: ONYEKACHI AJA OTISI, J.C.A.

SUMMARY OF JUDGMENT:

INTRODUCTION:

This appeal borders on the dissolution of marriage.

FACTS:

The Appellant and the Respondent were married at the Marriage Registry, Kaduna North Local Government, Kaduna State, on October 25, 2013. They settled to cohabit at No. 44 Alkali Road, High Cost, Kaduna, after the marriage.

Unfortunately, soon after their marriage, the couple began to have disagreements that could not be resolved. While the Respondent was pregnant with their son, the couple ceased cohabiting. The Respondent relocated abroad in 2014, and in 2016, filed a petition for dissolution of the marriage before the High Court of Kaduna State, coram H.A.L. Balogun. J., (now JCA). The main ground for the petition was that the marriage had broken down irretrievably. The Respondent sought its dissolution.

​The Appellant filed an Answer to the Petition, to which the Respondent responded by filing a Reply. The matter proceeded to a hearing. At the conclusion of the Respondent’s case, the Appellant’s Counsel announced that, based on the evidence adduced for the Respondent, the Appellant did not see the need to enter any defence. Rather, that they would make a no case submission.

The Respondent’s Counsel, being of the view that a no case submission had no place in civil proceedings, urged the trial Court for a date for the parties to address the Court.

The learned trial Judge proceeded to hear the address from both Counsel, and on 24/4/2018, granted the petition.

​Aggrieved by the decision of the trial Court, the Appellant lodged this appeal.

ISSUE(S) FOR DETERMINATION:

The appeal was determined on the following issues:

1. “Whether there is any admissible evidence adduced in proof of any intolerable conduct on the part of the Respondent to warrant the grant of the petition for dissolution of the marriage under Section 15(2)(c) of the Matrimonial Causes Act.”

2. “Whether the refusal of the trial Judge to allow the Respondent’s Counsel to make a no-case submission and the subsequent foreclosure of the right of defence did not constitute a breach of fair hearing as enshrined under Section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”

DECISION/HELD:

In the final analysis, the appeal was dismissed.

RATIOS:

• APPEAL- GROUND(S) OF APPEAL: Effect of a ground of appeal from which no issue for determination is formulated
• CONSTITUTIONAL LAW- RIGHT TO FAIR HEARING: Whether a party who had an opportunity of being heard but did not utilize it can bring an action for breach of fair hearing
• CONSTITUTIONAL LAW- BREACH OF RIGHT TO FAIR HEARING: Duty of a party alleging breach of right to fair hearing
• CONSTITUTIONAL LAW- RIGHT TO FAIR HEARING: What the concept of fair hearing entails; Instance where it cannot be said that a right to fair hearing has been breached
• EVIDENCE- BURDEN OF PROOF/STANDARD OF PROOF: Burden/standard of proof in civil cases and whether it shifts; whether the plaintiff can rely on the weakness of the case of the other party
• EVIDENCE- HEARSAY EVIDENCE: Instance when evidence of a witness will be regarded as hearsay evidence
• EVIDENCE- WITNESS(ES): Whether a party is bound to testify in his own case
• MATRIMONIAL CAUSES- DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE: What a petitioner/cross-petitioner who alleges that a marriage has broken down irretrievably because of intolerable behaviour must prove to succeed
• MATRIMONIAL CAUSES- MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDING(S): Standard of proof in matrimonial causes; test to be employed in determining “reasonable satisfaction of the Court” as envisaged by the Matrimonial Causes Act
• MATRIMONIAL CAUSES- DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE: Position of the law on desertion as a ground for the dissolution of a marriage
• MATRIMONIAL CAUSES- MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDING(S): Whether a no case submission is applicable in matrimonial causes

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