KALIO & ANOR
V.
WOLUCHEM & ORS.

D. O. COKER, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal presents a special feature which distinguishes the case from the generally accepted and well known principle that sale of family land by a member of the family as his own personal property is void. The principle is well established and cannot be doubted. What distinguishes this case is that the paramount chief of the community to which the family belong and who himself was a very important member of the family confirmed to the purchasers before the sale that the land in question was the personal property of the vendor, himself an important member of the family. As further assurance to the Purchasers that the vendor had the right to sell the land and put the purchasers into possession, the paramount chief witnessed the deed of conveyance to the purchasers without any objection or opposition from any member of the family for upwards of over ten years. The learned trial judge did not find on the evidence that the Woluchem…