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ACQUIESCENCE TO DEPRIVE A MAN MUST BE FRAUDULENT TO HOLD SWAY

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Dictum

Willmott v. Barber (1880) 15 Ch.D 96 at p. 105 viz: “It has been said that the acquiescence which will deprive a man of his legal rights must amount to fraud, and in my view, that is an abbreviated statement of a very true proposition. A man is not to be deprived of his legal rights unless he has acted in such a way as would make it fraudulent for him to set up those rights.”

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ACQUIESCENCE MUST HAVE AMOUNTED TO FRAUD

In Abbey v. Ollenu (1954) 14 WACA 567 at 568, the West African Court of Appeal adopted and quoted with approval the dictum of Fry J. in Willmot v. Barber (1880) 15 CH.D 96 at 105 thus: “It has been said that the acquiescence which will deprive a man of his legal rights must amount to fraud and in my view that is an abbreviated statement of a very true proposition. A man is not to be deprived of his legal rights unless he acted in such a way as would make it fraudulent for him to set up those rights.” See also Gerrard v. O’Reilly 3 D and WAR 414.

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ACQUIESCENCE CANNOT SUCCEED WHERE PARTY ON LAND WITH LEAVE OF LANDLORD

The defence of acquiescence presupposes adverse possession. Such a plea cannot succeed where, as in this case, the appellants were on the land with the leave and licences of the respondents. They ought to know that their root of title derived from the respondents. In putting up those 5 buildings, they could not be acting...

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ACQUIESCENCE WHICH AMOUNT TO FRAUD

The appellants have not denied that the respondent had been on the land since the Shagari administration and when they met him prior to 2002, a fence of three coaches of blocks, a gate which they removed and a Mosque were on the land. The appellants have shown a high degree of acquiescence which may...

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ACQUIESCENCE IN LAND – LEAVING A STRANGER TO BUILD ON LAND

“If for instance, a stranger begins to build on my land, supposing it to be his own, and I, perceiving his mistake, abstain from setting him right, and leave him to persevere in his error, a Court of Equity will not allow me afterwards to assert my title to the land on which he had expended money on, the supposition that the land was his own. It considers that when I saw the mistake into which he had fallen, it was my duty to be active, and to state my adverse title; and that it would be dishonest in me to remain wilfully passive on such an occasion in order afterward to profit by the mistake which I might have prevented”. See Lord Cranworth in Ramsden v. Dyson (1866) 1 H.L. 140: see also Rafat v. Ellis (1954) 14WACA. 430.

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