The purchaser pendente lite and the issue of notice: the modern approach

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Owning property has always been a part of the dream of the average Nigerian. For decades people go to court to enforce their property right, or to affirm their right to peaceable enjoyment or even quiet title. However problems arise when a party conveys property while litigation regarding that property is pending. The common law doctrine of Lis pendens or pendente Lite established rules regarding property rights for precisely that situation.

Lis pendens or pendente lite literally means "pending suit", action or matter, particularly one relating to land. Ordinarily in equity and in law where a purchaser obtains a legal estate without notice of an earlier equitable encumbrance or equities attaching to the land, the legal title/estate so obtained by the purchaser shall not be disturbed. Thus a bona-fide purchaser for value of a legal estate without notice of prior equitable interest takes free from all prior equities affecting the property.

However the above assertion though trite law, may not hold sway in all situations. One of which is under the doctrine of Lis-pendens. As mentioned earlier, Lis pendens means pending suit. In other words, the bona-fide purchaser of a legal estate without notice of prior equitable interest may not have his interest affirmed where he purchases a property the subject matter of a pending litigation.

A bona fide purchaser is a purchaser who acted without negligence, without malice and more significantly, without knowledge of the existing prior equitable interest. Notice in equity is synonymous with knowledge in the above context. Notice in the doctrine of bonafide purchaser is not only significant but crucial.