DURAMANI NGELEGLA
V.
TRIBAL AUTHORITY NONGOW A CHIEFDOM

 Coussey. J.A. In this appeal, probably owing to the form of the pleadings, the argument has flowed into the field of an action against the panel of a Native Court but it remains, as the endorsement on the writ shows an action for assault and false imprisonment against the Tribal Authority.

The plaintiff's case is that he was unlawfully arrested without warrant by the Tribal Authority. He sued the Paramount Chief as well as the Tribal Authority of Nongowa Chiefdom on the assumption that, as the chief officer of the Tribal Authority, who, it is claimed, carried out the arrest, the Paramount Chief was severally liable together with the Tribal Authority in trespass. In the course of the trial, however, it was realised that the Tribal Authority is the principal and the Paramount Chief its agent, and the action was, with leave, abandoned as against the first defendant.

By his statement of claim the plaintiff averred that on the 12th October, 1950 when he answered affirmatively to an enquiry …