Court Nullifies Husband’s N20 Million Property Sale without Wife’s Consent

Ilesanmi AdekanbiMay 30, 2023

2 minutes read

A Lagos High Court in Ikeja has made a landmark ruling that affirms the rights of women to jointly own properties with their husbands.

The court said that husbands hold such properties in ‘constructive trust’ for the family and cannot sell them without the wives’ consent.

The court also said that ‘indirect contributions’ of wives to the marital properties, such as paying for household expenses or legal fees, should not be measured in monetary terms to entitle them to a share of the properties.

The ruling was delivered by Justice Dorcas T. Olatokun in a case between a couple, Mr. Pius Aina and his wife, Caroline, over a house at Festac Town, Lagos, that the husband sold to another person without the wife’s knowledge or approval.

The couple had been married for 35 years under the Marriage Act and had three children. The husband worked with the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and was allocated a two-bedroom bungalow at Festac Town, where he lived with his family for over 30 years.

The wife claimed that she contributed to the payment of the house, which was offered to the husband at N400,000 by FHA after his retirement.

She also claimed that she paid for the legal fees when the husband sued FHA over another property at Ipaja, Lagos.

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She further claimed that she paid off a loan of N150,000 that the husband took from Cooperative Bank and used the house as collateral.

The wife said she discovered that the husband had sold the house for N20 million to another person in 2018 while she was abroad.

She said the sale was done with fake documents as she had the original ones with her. She sued her husband and the buyer, asking the court to void the sale.

The husband, however, denied that his wife contributed to the payment or maintenance of the house. He said he paid N3.750 million for the house from his terminal benefit and that he consulted both his wives before selling it. He said he had another wife whom he married under customary law before marrying Caroline under statutory law.

He said he bought another house for Caroline at Amuwo Odofin Low-Cost Housing Estate and another one for himself at Ondo State from the proceeds of the sale. He argued that he had the right to sell his own house without his wife’s permission.

The court, however, ruled in favour of the wife and set aside the sale of the house.

The court said that there was a valid marriage between the couple and that they both contributed to the marriage.

The court said that the husband could not sell the house without the wife’s consent as they were joint owners of the property.

The court cited the English Master of Rolls, Lord Denning, who defined ‘constructive trust’ as “a trust imposed by law wherever justice and good conscience require a remedy by which the court can enable an aggrieved spouse or party to obtain restitution and the success of the party’s case does not depend on his or her direct physical or monetary contribution to the building or acquisition of the property.”