The grandchildren of Late Joseph Theodore N. Caulcrick, have urged an Igboosere High Court, Lagos, to dismiss a suit filed against them by some people over the properties of their late grandfather.
The deceased grandchildren, Oluwole Caulcrick, Akinkunle Caulcrick, Akinwale Caulcrick and Rotibi Caulcrick made the appeal in a response to a suit filed against them by Mrs. Jumoke Asiodu, Mr. Adeniyi Soyode, Mr. Akintunde Caulcrick and Joseph Olusegun Caulcrick, who are also grandchildren of late Joseph T. N. Caulcrick.
The five applicants in suit number M/241P/17, filed before the court by their lawyer, Adedunmade Onibokun, have urged the court to restrained the four grandchildren of Late Caulcrick, from holding out themselves or parading themselves as the executors of their late grandfather’s estate.
The applicants have also asked the court for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining them, their privies, servants and agents for further dealing with, entering, attempting to take possession of properties, assets or withdrawing money from the Estate’s account of late Joseph T. N. Caulcrick, pending the determination of the suit filed by them in respect of the estate.
However, the respondents, in a notice of preliminary objection to the applicants’ suit, filed by their lawyer, Felix Nwokolo, urged the court for an order dismissing the applicants’ suit, as the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain it.
The late Theodore’s grandchildren, in a counter-affidavit to the interlocutory motion deposed to by Akinkunle Caulcrick, averred that the affidavit in support of applicants’ motion are full of lies, half truth and innuendos.
Akinkunle averrred that J. T. Nelson Caulcrick, left a will at his death, which was admitted to probate on November 18, 1952, with the following people appointed by him as executors: Ayodele Salako, Nora O. Pereira and Akinwunmi Hezekaih. Adding that the executors aforesaid administered the estate for several years, opened account number 2000496296 with the First Bank of Nigeria, where the proceeds from the estate are lodged and distributed accordingly to the beneficiaries of the estate.
The deponent averred further that since the demise of all the executors, the applicants had, suomotu,and without any authority from other grand children and beneficiaries of the estate, been administering the estate as their own personal property for the last 15 years without any court order.
Akinkunle also stated that after the death of Nora O. Pereire, the last executor to die, the applicants fraudulently and without any court order, changed the signatory to the estate’s account with the First bank of Nigeria.
He stated that, they, who are respondents in the suit, were duly appointed as executors of the estate, by a meeting of the larger family, held on June 18, 2016, at 305, Herbert Macaulay street, Yaba, Lagos, which have majority of Late Caulcrick in attendance. Adding that the applicants were duly invited for the meeting, but chose no to attend on the ground that they are senior grandchildren of Late Caulcrick, and cannot attend any meeting convened by the junior cousins.
The deponent also stated that the purported family meeting held by the applicants on November, 2017, when litigation was imminent, was false, and tailored to defeat the rights of other members of the family.
He also averred that the claim by the applicants that the respondents in the suit have been misappropriating funds from the estate since assuming office, is false and a figment of the applicants’ imagination.
Akinkunle, while urging the court to dismiss applicants’s suit, stated that majority of the family members would be prejudiced if granted, and undertake to pay any future damages if the applicants suffer any lose by the refusal of the court to them the order for interlocutory injunction.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit.