OPUTA, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The main issue and in fact the only issue in this appeal is the appropriate order to make in a case where there was a failure to join as a party to a pending suit, a person 'who claims to have an interest in the subject-matter of the suit or who may be affected by the result'. Having said this, I will quickly add that the appeal to this Court is from the judgment of the Court of Appeal. This Court has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from the judgment of the High Court. Was the Court of Appeal therefore wrong in holding that the trial Court should, on its own findings of fact, have dismissed the Plaintiff/Appellant's case or should the Court of Appeal have ordered that the case be struck out for reason of non-joinder of parties?
The issue of joinder, non-joinder and misjoinder of parties has agitated and has been agitated in the Courts from time to time, and there is no paucity of principles or dicta in this branch of the law. The only di…