CASES/JUDGMENTS ON FAMILY LAW IN NIGERIA (3)
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CASES/JUDGMENTS ON FAMILY LAW IN NIGERIA (3)
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| TITLE | MAIN ISSUES |
| MBONU V. MBONU | FAMILY LAW:- Matrimonial Causes — Petition for nullification of marriage — Cross-petition for dissolution of marriage — Onus on petitioner to satisfy the Court as to jurisdiction |
| FAMILY LAW: – Matrimonial Causes – Alimony pendente lite [pending suit] – Period over which same may be granted – Maintenance and alimony – Distinction – Financial capability of wife – Whether relevant consideration in calculating alimony and maintenance – Other relevant considerations | |
| MENAKAYA VS. MENAKAYA | FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES:- Hearing matrimonial proceedings/petition in chambers and giving judgment thereat – Whether open violation of the provision of Section 103(1) & (2) of Matrimonial Causes Act – Whether it is mandatory that proceedings in respect of petition for dissolution of marriage shall be in public – Whether the parties or the court can decide otherwise |
| FAMILY LAW:- Matrimonial Causes – Divorce – Husband’s Application for grant of Decree Nisi on ground of Cruelty by wife – How proved – Whether unreasonable conduct is not necessarily cruel, and neither an over-bearing will nor domineering character is of itself enough to establish cruelty – Need for the conduct complained of as cruel to be what an ordinary man would describe as “cruel” if the full story were told – Whether proof that conduct complained of was the immediate cause of a suicide attempt on petitioner’s side relieves petitioner of the necessity of satisfying the Court that it was such a course of conduct as the Court could reasonably call cruel when adopted by this wife towards this husband – Applicability of the maxim res ipsa loquitur | |
| NWANKPELE V. NWANKPELE | FAMILY LAW AND PROCEDURE:- Matrimonial causes – Petition for annulment of marriage on ground of prior-that husband was lawfully married at the time he contracted the marriage with petitioner – Need to prove continuation of life of the other spouse at time of marriage sought to be annulled – Custody of child – Relevant considerations |
| FAMILY LAW- MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS: – Divorce on ground of cruelty – Test to be applied – “whether this wife has been cruel to this husband and this is only to be decided after all the facts had been taken into account” – Whether Gollins v. Gollins did overrule many previous decisions but did not lay down that the whole of the law of cruelty in divorce is now to be found in that one case FAMILY LAW- MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS:- Divorce – Application for Decree Nisi –Where successful – Whether either party can subsequently ask the court to grant a judicial separation rather than a divorce because one of the factors to be considered was the interests of the children – Party to whom such request was open to – Relevant considerations in exercising court’s discretion thereto | |
| FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES – MARRIAGE:- Validity thereof FAMILY LAW – MARRIAGE: – Church marriage – Where a marriage ceremony fails the standard for valid statutory marriage – Whether a certificate of marriage issued by a church which falls below the standard for a valid statutory marriage automatically translate to proof of marriage under native law and custom FAMILY LAW – MARRIAGE: – Presumption of valid marriage – Relevant considerations deemed as sufficient evidence – form of marriage certificate recognized by court – Void marriage certificate – Why it cannot support the inference of the existence of a marital relationship between the appellant and the deceased for something cannot come out of nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit) – Where no certificate of marriage is presented – Whether evidence of ceremony of marriage followed by co-habitation of the couples suffices – Relevant considerations | |
| FAMILY LAW:– Matrimonial causes – Divorce and custody of children | |
| OJO V. OJO | FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS:- Matrimonial proceedings – Grounds for divorce – Adultery – Need to it to be pleaded and proved – Desertion – Relevant considerations before same can be deemed grounded – When separation of residence is not necessarily evidence of constructive desertion – Cruelty – When corroboration of acts cited as cruelty will be required FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS:- Divorce – Custody of children of the marriage – Need for order granting the custody of the children of the marriage to any person to be made with due inquiry into the interest and welfare of such children – Duty of judges to treat custody proceedings with high importance – Rule 33A (a) of the Matrimonial Causes Rules, 1957 |
| FAMILY LAW:- Matrimonial causes – Petition for divorce on ground of subsisting customary law marriage – Need to prove customary law marriage strictly – Relevant considerations FAMILY LAW AND PROCEDURE:- Civil Procedure – Petition for nullity – Marriage Act (Cap. 115) – Subsisting marriage – Subsequent marriage during pendency – Consent and Cohabitation under Benin Native Law. | |
| Family Law:- Petition for dissolution of marriage – Grounds of adultery, cruelty and desertion – Supplemental petition filed under matrimonial causes Decree 1970.
FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES:- Petition for divorce on grounds of adultery, cruelty and desertion – Requisite of standard of proof – Need to recognize the primacy of provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act over principles contained in the decided English cases FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES:- Proof of desertion – Party who forcibly ejected spouse from the matrimonial home – Whether in desertion as from the date of the eviction – Adultery – Need to examine evidence – Standard of proof | |
| OYEDO V. OYEDO | FAMILY LAW:– Matrimonial causes – Custody of children – Paramount consideration in granting custody – Parties that can be granted custody FAMILY LAW:- Application for interim custody of children – Proper way to institute the application – Whether a proper application can be heard first before hearing the substantive petition |
| FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS: – Divorce on ground of cruelty – Test to be applied – “whether this wife has been cruel to this husband and this is only to be decided after all the facts had been taken into account” – Whether Gollins v. Gollins did overrule many previous decisions but did not lay down that the whole of the law of cruelty in divorce is now to be found in that one case
FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS: – Divorce – Application for Decree Nisi –Where successful – Whether open either party can subsequently ask the court to grant a judicial separation rather than a divorce because one of the factors to be considered was the interests of the children – Party to whom such request was open to – Relevant considerations in exercising court’s discretion thereto | |
| SANNI V. MABINUORI | FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES- DIVORCE: – Custodial rights – Whether court can modify custody order – Wrongful observance of an order granting visiting rights and access to children during school holidays – Proper application for enforcing custody order when breached |
| FAMILY LAW – SHARIA: – Paternity of child – Legitimacy and legitimation – Relevant considerations | |
| THERESA TEMITAYO WILLIAMS V. RASHEED AHMED WILLIAMS | FAMILY LAW:- Order for custody – Whether Court not obliged to make grant to either parent unless he or she qualifies – Paramountcy of promotion of welfare of child – Duty of Court to consider that a child is entitled to the best that either parent can and will offer – Desire of a party to send a child abroad for studies– Relevance l – Effect of absence or presence of evidence of plaits and proposals for future education by either party – Effect of child being with one parent before the order is made – Effect of education in foreign land – Order for custody – Not a penal order on either parent – Parameters to consider in granting custody of a child – Rebuff of one party in his effort to contribute to welfare of child – Whether ground for granting joint custody – Source of applicable law in relation to custody |
| FAMILY LAW – VALID MARRIAGE: Presumptions as to paternity secured under a valid marriage – Effect of | |
| UBEKU V. UBEKU | FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS:- Divorce of cruelty and adultery – How proved – Need to distinguish cultural context between England and Nigeria in finding whether cruelty is proved or not – Custody of children – When court will grant same to wife against whom an order for divorce was made for cruelty – When order for maintenance of child and wife would not be granted |
| UKEJE V. MRS LOIS CHITURU UKEJE | FAMILY LAW – PATERNITY:- Child born outside of wedlock – Where acknowledged – Implication for inheritance of estate of deceased father |
| VICTORIA ADEKUNBI ABAJINGIN V. MICHAEL FULANI ABAJINGIN & ANOR. | FAMILY LAW:– Divorce and Custody of Children – Interest of children of paramount consideration |
| FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES:- Husband and Wife – Divorce – Paternity – Estoppel – Decree on ground of adultery – Paternity “not admitted” – Whether res judicata – Legitimacy – Presumption – Use of contraceptives at time of conception – Paternity issue – whether wife can claim maintenance for child after a decree has been granted to the husband on the ground of wife’s adultery | |
| WILLIAMS V. WILLIAMS | FAMILY LAW:– Petition for divorce on grounds amounting to desertion and adultery- Proof of adultery – Adultery by both parties to the marriage – Court discretion – Proper exercise thereof FAMILY LAW AND PROCEDURE: Divorce proceedings – Proof of adultery against third party co-respondent FAMILY LAW: Dissolution of marriage – Breakdown of marriage due predominantly to civil war – Couple on opposite camps of national crisis – Petitioner asking for discretion of court in respect of his own adultery – Damages claimed against co-respondent |
| FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES:- Divorce and custody proceedings – Cruelty – What constitutes – Proof of – What petitioner must show -Judge’s discretion to dissolve marriage – Guiding principle – Custody of children – What should he considered | |
| WILLIAMS AND GLYN’S BANK LTD V. BOLAND AND ANOTHER (HL) | FAMILY LAW:- Husband and wife – Matrimonial property – Doctrine of unity – Whether wife’s occupation of a jointly owned matrimonial property is no more than occupation in shadow of her husband -Whether a spouse, living in a house, has an actual occupation capable of conferring protection, as an overriding interest, on rights of that spouse |
| FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES: – Petition for nullification of marriage on ground of recurrent attack of insanity – Sec. 7(1) (b) of The Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 and Section 9(1) Matrimonial Causes Act 1965 – Conditions precedent for the grant of the Order – Relevant considerations FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL PROCEEDINGS: – Petition for nullification of marriage – Woman who had been admitted before to mental hospitals before marriage – Where fact was not made known to husband – Relevant considerations – Need to consider the reports or evidence of doctors who treated respondent when she suffered a breakdown in her health FAMILY LAW – MATRIMONIAL CAUSES: – Sec. 9(1) (b) (iii) of the Act of the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1961 – Petition for nullification of marriage on ground of recurrent attacks or fits of insanity or epilepsy – Distinction between lack of capacity to enter into a contract of marriage and legal effect arising from this: that on the day of the marriage the respondent was capable or not capable to enter into a contract of marriage |
JUDGMENTS BY AREAS OF PRACTICE
JUDGMENTS BY PRACTICE/PROCEDURE ISSUES
