Sunday, October 25, 2009

Evaluation of evidence- Guidelines

In the process of evaluating of evidence the court must have regard to certain guidelines like (a) admissibility of the evidence(b) relevancy of the evidence(c) credibility of the evidence(d) conclusiveness of the evidence(e) probability of the evidence of one party more than that of the other. The trial court having satisfied itself that the foregoing have been complied with would then apply the law to the situation presented in the case before it so as to arrive at a conclusion one way or the otherSee Mogaji v. Odofin (1978)4 SC 91; Akibu v.Opaleye (1974)11 SC 139 

On principles guilding considreation of application for extension of time

When a court is invited to make an order extending the time prescribed by the rules of court for taking certain procedural steps it must be borne in mind that such rules of court must be obeyed. if there is default in taking the procedural steps within the prescribed period a court order extending such period being a discretionary one there must be some material upon which to base the execrise of that discretion Williams v.Hope Rising Voluntary Funds Society (1982)1-2 SC 145

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Whether documents in support of pleaded facts need specifically be pleaded

Documents in support of facts pleaded need not to be specifically pleaded but can be tendered in evidence to support or prove the facts pleaded.Documents that are alluded to in the evidence even if they are not specifically pleaded.See Odunsi v. Bamgbala (1995)1 NWLR (Pt.374)641;Amadi v. Olumati (1995)7NWLR (Pt.410)739;F.B.N Plc v. Tsokwa (2004)5NWLR (pt.866)271

On What constitutes a contract

A contract is an agreement between two or more parties which creates reciprocal legal obligation or obligations to do or not to do a particular thing.For a valid contract to be formed,there must be mutuality of purpose and intention.The two or more minds must meet at the same point,event or incident.They must not meet at different points,events or incidents.They must be saying the same thing at the same time

On ingredients of contract

There are five ingredients that must be present in a valid contract.They are offer,acceptance, consideration,intention to create legal relationship and capacity to contract.All these five ingredients are autonomous units in the sense that a contract cannot be formed if any of them is absent

N.B For a contract to exist in all the five ingredients must be present