admin

A Plaintiff has the burden to prove the reliefs sought in the statement of claim or originating summons to obtain judgment. The burden does not shift. This is because he is the party who claims the reliefs in the statement of claim and so the onus probandi rests on him. He must prove the affirmative content of his statement of claim. The Nigerian adversarial system of justice demands that where a party in a suit complains that the provisions of the Constitution or a statute have been breached by the acts performed by the other party, the court ought to examine the acts complained of against the relevant provisions of the law in order to resolve the issue. (P. 116, paras. E-F).

Generally, the death of a customer of a bank brings to an end the banker-customer relationship contract between that customer and the bank. However, the banker customer relationship being primarily that of a debtor -creditor, an existing obligation to pay money under the contract and entitlement to be paid money under the contract survive the termination of the banker-customer contract. Justas the obligation of a bank to pay interest on money standing to the credit of a customer in his or her account is not affected by the death of the customer and survives that death as part of his estate, the customer’s obligation to pay periodic interest charges on loans or overdrafts applied for and obtained from the bank survives the death of the customer and becomes a debt on his or her estate. The agreement to pay interests on the loan subsists so long as the loan remains unpaid and the death of the debtor customer will not affect it. The accruing interest is money the bank is contractually entitled to be paid on the loan it gave the customer.