MOHAMMED, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The appellant in this appeal was plaintiff at the Benin High Court. The construction of high-tension 330 KV overhead Benin-Onitsha transmission line in 1966 was the cause of the suit filed in Benin High Court against the National Electric Power Authority, N.E.P.A., which is the respondent in this appeal. The appellant complained that the transmission line was constructed directly over his house rendering his house and the adjoining parcel of land unsafe for human habitation. As a result of electrical shocks the plaintiff and the household suffered from whenever they came in contact with metallic objects in the house, the appellant and his entire household, upon expert advice, moved out of the premises to a rented accommodation where he has been staying since 1966.
The appellant therefore claimed ₦200,000.00 being compensation or damages for the unsafe condition he suffered from the energized wires of the respondent and the expenses o…