The argument of the respondents’ counsel on this issue is totally misconceived. A person makes his application to the court at the time he files his application. By the time the application is filed, life is being given to it and it stands as subsisting application pending before the court and the moving of such an application is at the discretion of the court. To say as did the respondents’ counsel that life is not given to the application until when it is moved is therefore a misconception of the rules of court. Where a person prepares the application and did not file it in court, then he has not given life to it. He may decide not to file it at all. He may keep it, retain it or abandon it, so long as it has not been filed in court, no life has been given to it.. It is just like commencement of action by means of any of the processes of court as provided by our rules of court. Once a person has taken out a writ of summon or any of the originating processes against a party, he is said to have commenced the action against that particular party and life is given to the writ or originating process as soon as it is filed and not when hearing commences in the matter, when life could be said to be given to the process by which the action was filed. Assuming an application which was duly filed in court is adjourned several times before it is heard, can it be said that the application has not been given life? I think not. It is also my view based on the above that this issue is also resolved in favour of the appellant.
— Abba Aji, J.C.A. Secondi Bogban & Ors. V. Motor Diwhre & Ors. (CA/B/88/2003, 20 MAY 2005)