Whether the Stereotyping of Particular Names Being for the Male Or Female Sex Is Known to any Law

CASE TITLE: ADEBIYI & ORS v. BUSARI (2022) LPELR-58660(CA)

JUDGMENT DATE: 4TH OCTOBER, 2022

PRACTICE AREA: CONTRACT

LEAD JUDGMENT: YUSUF ALHAJI BASHIR, J.C.A.

SUMMARY OF JUDGMENT:

INTRODUCTION

This appeal borders on Contract.

FACTS

This appeal is against the judgment of the High Court of Osun State, Osogbo delivered on the 13th day of November 2018 by Hon. Justice A. O. Ayoola.

The Appellants entered into a contract by which they sold a property to the Respondent, who was resident in the United Kingdom at the material time and acted through an agent, for the sum of N10 Million and they executed a Sale of Land Agreement dated 27th of January, 2012 in favour of the Respondent in his name, Adesola Jemilat Busari. The Respondent paid the agreed sum of N10 Million to the Appellants through his agent in three instalments and the Appellants received the payments and issued the Respondent with a receipt acknowledging the total sum paid. There was evidence led that in the course of the negotiations for the purchase, the agent of the Appellants had telephone discussions with the Respondent and was aware that the Respondent was a male.

​Months after the execution of the contract and receipt of the full payment, the Appellants woke up to contend that the Respondent, in favour of whom they executed the agreement and from whom they received the N10 Million, was a fictitious and non-existent person and they sought to repudiate the agreement and return the money collected. The Appellants predicated this preposterous assertion on the fact that the Respondent was male, while the middle name he bore was a female name.

Hence, the Respondent commenced an action at the trial Court to enforce the contract in his name. The Appellants equally filed a counter-claim.

At the conclusion of the trial, the learned trial judge entered judgment in favour of the Respondent while the counterclaim of the Appellants was dismissed. Dissatisfied, the Appellants lodged an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

ISSUES FOR DETERMINATION

The appeal was determined on the following issues thus:

“(1) Whether the Plaintiff/Respondent sufficiently proved his identity for the trial Court to assume jurisdiction in this suit.

(2) Whether the trial Judge is right in making conclusions without making findings of facts in accordance with the pleadings and evidence laid before the Court in his judgment.”

DECISION/HELD

In the final analysis, the appeal was dismissed and the judgment of the trial High Court was upheld.

RATIOS:

• COMMERCIAL LAW – AGENCY: General principles of law on agency
• CONTRACT – PARTIES TO CONTRACT: Meaning of a name; whether the names parties to a contract bear is material
• EVIDENCE – JUDICIAL NOTICE: Whether Court must take judicial notice of names of persons peculiar to one gender under any religion
• LEGAL PRACTITIONER – DUTY OF COUNSEL: Duty of Counsel as a minister in the temple of justice and an officer of the Court