CORAM
ADEMOLA, CHIEF JUSTICE, NIGERIA
COKER, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
SOWEMIMO, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT
PARTIES
SOLICITOR – GENERAL WESTERN NIGERIA APPELLANTS
RESPONDENTS
AREA(S) OF LAW
SUMMARY OF FACTS
The defendant was offered overseas scholarship by the Government of Western Nigeria to study pediatrics at the Yale University. On his return to Nigeria, and in breach of a bond to serve the government for 5 years, he resigned his appointment with the Government, claiming that the office and conditions of service offered him were not commensurate with his qualifications.
HELD
The Court held that the Western State Court of Appeal was wrong in holding that the appointment offered the defendant on his return home and the capacity in which he was asked to serve the government was not “reasonable” and therefore was entitled to resign, as a remedy.
ISSUES
1. Whether the Western State Court of Appeal was in error in holding that 1st defendant at the material time possess a specialist qualification
2. Whether the Western State Court of Appeal was in error of law by importing into the clear words of the contract of the parties the concept of reasonableness.
RATIONES DECIDENDI
THE CARDINAL RULE OF INTERPRETATION
“It is the alphabet of his study to any lawyer that in the construction of documents the words must first be given their simple and ordinary meaning and that under no circumstances may new or additional words be imported into the text unless the documents would be by the absence of that which is imported impossible to understand. The cardinal presumption is that the parties have intended what they have in fact said so that their words must be construed as they stand.” Per Coker JSC
CASES CITED
Smith v. Lucas (1881) 18 Ch.D. 531 at 542
STATUTES REFERRED TO
None