CORAM
ADEMOLA CHIEF JUSTICE, NIGERIA
COKER JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
LEWIS JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
PARTIES
APPELLANTS
A. AKANDE AND OTHERS
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
LAW OF AGENCY – ACCOUNT- DISCLOSED PRINCIPAL
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The appellant was ordered to account for the sale of family property he carried out as the agent of the 1st defendant.
HELD
The court held that the appellant cannot be held to account and dismissed the claim against him.
ISSUES
Whether on the manifest finding of the judge that the appellant was an agent of the first defendant he could be asked to account not to his disclosed principal, the first defendant, but to the respondents to whom the first defendant might have borne some fiduciary relationship.
RATIONES DECIDENDI
WHEN AGENT CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR PRINCIPAL’S FUNDS
1. ‘No agent is personally liable to repay money which he had received for the use of his principal.’ Per Coker, J.S.C
CASES CITED
1. Pond v. Underwood (1705) 2 Ld. Raym. 1210, 1211;
2. Sadler v. Evans (1766) 4 Burr. 1986.
3. Ellis v. Coulton [1893] I Q.B. 350 at p. 352
STATUTES REFERRED TO