LAR
V.
STIRLING ASTALDI (NIG) LTD.

FATAYI-WILLIAMS, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): According to his particulars of claim, the plaintiff, (now appellant) is the owner of a farm called Dinging Farm which is an orchard farm at Langtang in the former Benue Plateau State of Nigeria. He had on the farm citrus trees which were yielding fruits. Between the months of October, 1971, and July, 1972, the defendants (now respondents), a firm of engineering and building contractors, while engaged in the construction of the Amper-Shendam Road in the said Benue Plateau State, by their servants and agents, committed acts of trespass on the plaintiff's farm. Although the farm was fenced round with barbed wire, the defendants broke into and entered the farm with their caterpillars, tractors and bulldozers and destroyed the trees growing therein.

The plaintiff also complained that on diverse dates within the same period, the defendants by their said servants and agents wrongfully committed waste in the said farm by "felling, lo…