Damages - general damages and special damages - loss of user and loss of business - action for illegal seizure of a motor vehicle - trial court finding that the respondent was liable to the appellant for illegal seizure and detention of vehicle for 15 months but failing to award the appellant damages - trial court also issuing an order of costs against the appellant - trial court having found that the appellant had not proved its case for special damages and that there was no claim for general damages - appeal -  circumstances in which an appellate court will interfere with the findings of a trial court on damages - duty of a claimant to not only plead special damages but to prove it - whether a pro-forma invoice amounts to evidence of payments made and therefore special damages - distinction between an invoice and a receipt -

Civil Practice and Procedure - pleadings - prayers - court has no power to grant a relief a party has not prayed for - where a matter is pleaded but not included in the final prayers of a plaint - matter canvassed in court - whether the matter may be said to have been properly before the court so that the court was required to deal with it - claim for general damages pleaded but not prayed for - whether the court was right in declining to make an award for general damages on that ground

Equity - maxims of equity - equity will not suffer a wrong to be without a remedy - claim for damages for losses arising from illegal seizure and detention of a commercial vehicle - claim for general damages pleaded in the body of the plaint but not included in the prayers - respondent found liable for illegal seizure - whether award of general damages could be declined on the ground that it had not been prayed for.

Civil Practice and Procedure - appeal - jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal  - joinder of parties - parties to an appeal - duty of the appellant to join in the appeal all persons likely to be directly affected by the appeal - party joined to appeal after the other parties had made their submissions - whether the late joinder of the party was proper - whether the joinder caused prejudice to the other parties - whether the court had jurisdiction to hear the joined party - Appellate Jurisdiction Act section 3(1) - Court of Appeal Rules rule 76

Equity - principles of equity - illegality -  where a party in a suit at equity is guilty of illegal conduct - whether such a party is entitled to equitable relief - party having brought money into the country in violation of foreign exchange law - party using the money to obtain and develop land property - foreign exchange law thereafter repealed - whether the property should be surrendered to the state - whether such a party was entitled to the protection of the court with regard to the ownership of the property.

Election Petition - procedure in election petitions - summary rejection of petition -  discretion of the court to summarily reject a petition or to list it for hearing - the main consideration that the court is to bear in mind in exercising its discretion - inherent power of an election petition court to admit to hearing certain interlocutory applications - appeal against an order of the election court refusing to admit to hearing applications to strike out a petition on the ground that it could no longer be heard in the absence of a returning officer who had been struck off as a party - whether there was merit in the appeal - National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act section 19(4), 22

Civil Practice and Procedure - taxation of costs - advocate's fees - appeal from the decision of the High Court on a reference of the decision of a taxing master reducing the instruction fees for an advocate to represent a petitioner in a winding up petition - whether the High Court was right in upholding the decision of the taxing master - whether the instruction fees was manifestly excessive and out of proportion to the work carried out by the advocates and it should have been reduced further - Advocates Remuneration Order rule 11(2)

Election Petition - procedure - procedure by which an election petition may be disposed - need for expeditious hearing and disposal of petitions - respondents to a petition filing motions for the striking out of the petition on the ground that the returning officer having been struck off as a party to the petition, the petition could not proceed - power of the court to either summarily reject a petition or list it for hearing - whether this power is discretionary or mandatory - matters a petition court should consider in exercising such power - National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act section 22 - National Assembly Election (Election Petition) Rules, 1993 rule 22

Criminal law - murder - appeal against conviction and sentence of death - Penal Code section 203, 204

Evidence - recognition evidence - where a case relies wholly on such evidence - how a trial court should test such evidence before it can form a basis for a conviction - witness evidence - it is only in cases where the evidence adduced barely proves a case when the witnesses not called would be presumed by the court to have been witnesses whose evidence would have been adverse to prosecutions.