It has been argued by the respondent’s counsel that the appellant did not appeal against this finding and some other findings made by the learned trial Judge, I must say that she was not given a fair hearing and has appealed against the whole judgment and does not need to appeal against everything said or every observation made by the learned trial Judge.
— Opene JCA. United Bank for Africa (UBA) v. Samuel Igelle Ujor (CA/C/134/99, 20 FEB 2001)
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It is inappropriate to distill more than one issue from one ground of appeal. – Nwodo, JCA. OLAM v. Intercontinental Bank (2009)
A ground of appeal must arise from the judgment appealed against and must be an attack on a ratio decidendi of the judgment and not an obiter dictum. – Ekanem JCA. C.O.P. v. Doolor (2020) – CA/MK/182/2017
It is now trite in law that the aim or purpose of a ground of appeal is to give the opposing party notice of the case it has to meet at the appellate Court and the particulars of error or misdirection alleged only intended to showcase the complaint against the decision appealed against. The particulars are not independent of the ground but must be in harmony and compatible with the grounds.
— Tanko Muhammad, JSC. Berger v Toki Rainbow (2019) – SC.332/2009
It is trite that a Respondent may not formulate issues outside the grounds of appeal contained in the Appellant’s Notice of Appeal, in this case contained in Pages 337 – 346 of the printed records of Appeal. Issues for determination must be based on and correlate with the grounds of appeal and should be an answer to the grounds of appeal. An issue may encompass one or more grounds of appeal, it is incompetent where the issues are not based on the grounds of appeal, they are irrelevant. Issues for determination in an appeal is akin to pleadings in the lower Court, hence adherence to the strict observance of the rules on formulating issues for determination. If all the above constituent elements or requirements of the doctrine are not fully established, the plea of estoppel per rem judicatam can not be sustained.
– Nwaoma Uwa, JCA. NOGA v. NICON (2007)
The settled law is that an issue formulated for determination must be distilled from a ground of appeal, and where it has no ground of appeal to relate to, then it has no part to play in the determination of the appeal, and so the appellate court has no option than to disregard the said issue. Issue (1) in the appellant’s brief of argument also becomes incompetent and it is discountenanced.
– Mukhtar JSC. Nwankwo v. Ecumenical (2007)
I would want to say in this appeal that where the presentation of the particulars are not elegantly presented that would not be used to punish a litigant to get the ground of appeal struck out for incompetence in a situation where the ground of appeal in substance is valid. See Ogboru v Okowa (2016) 11 NWLR (Pt.1522) 84, 146; Omisore v Aregbesola (2015) 15 NWLR (Pt.1482) 205; Dakolo v Dakolo (2011) 16 NWLR (Pt.1272) 22.
— Tanko Muhammad, JSC. Berger v Toki Rainbow (2019) – SC.332/2009
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