T. O. ELIAS, C.J.N.(Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal from the judgment of Kaine, J., in the High Court at Onitsha on January 25,1965. The action was brought, under the Fatal Accidents Law Cap. 52 of 1963 Edition of the Laws of the former Eastern Nigeria, by the father of the deceased on behalf of himself and the other dependents.
The relevant facts may be summarised as follows: The deceased, Victor Nduka, was in the early hours of April 5,1962, a passenger on a lorry driven by the second defendant (who had been sued jointly and severally as the servant or agent of John Nwafor, the first defendant, being the owner of the lorry No.EO 2441). It was established that the lorry was at the material time on its way from Onitsha to Kumba in the Cameroons; that it was travelling at an excessive speed when it ran off the road for a distance of 146 feet before it fell into a ditch; somersaulted and became a complete wreck; that the road was a straight and tarred one, very wide …