Court grants ex-Miss Nigeria 50% of late hubby's assets
(Nigeria) A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday declared
that a former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest-Ajayi, is entitled to 50 per cent of
the net assets of her late husband, Dr Tosin Ajayi.
Justice Tijjani Ringim gave the ruling in a suit by Miss
Tomisin Ajayi and Mrs Helen Prest Ajayi as 1st and 2nd Applicants, filed
through their counsel, Mr Abiodun Owonikoko, SAN.
The 1st to 4th Respondents/Applicants in the suit are First
Foundation Medical Engineering Company Ltd, Registrar-General of the Corporate
Affairs Commission, CAC, Mrs Oluwayemisi
Ajayi and Mr Patrick Abak, a lawyer.
First Foundation Medical Engineering Company was owned and
registered by the late Dr Tosin Ajayi.
The judge granted the 13 reliefs sought by the Applicants
following the respondents' failure to controvert them.
They include that Prest-Ajayi is "entitled to 50
percent (or so much as the Court may sanction upon audit and valuation)
constituting the net assets of the firm, after satisfying all just taxes and
debts as family and investment partner of Dr Tosin Ajayi, from 1996 till April
26, 2020 to the exclusion of Mrs Oluwayemisi Ajayi.
An order of court directing an investigation into the
affairs of the firm by the Registrar-General and for the Registrar-General to
call for an extra-ordinary general meeting to appoint additional directors for
the firm.
It also includes, among others, an order directing the
Registrar-General to audit and verify the firm's assets, a perpetual injunction
restraining the Registrar-General from recognising the Mrs Oluwayemisi Ajayi as
entitled to run the firm and a perpetual injunction restraining Mrs Oluwayemisi
Ajayi from dealing with the assets and properties belonging to the Defendant
and/or Late Dr Ajayi.
Justice Ringim held: "Despite the service of processes
filed on the the respondents and affidavits of service duly filed in court, the
respondents failed to use the opportunity afforded to them by law to controvert
the averment of the plaintiff in the affidavits.
"However, it is a settled law that evidence not
controverted are deemed admitted.
"In consideration of the applicant's motion on notice
and the affidavits in support and exhibits attached together with the legal
submissions of senior counsel for the applicant Owonikoko SAN, all the reliefs
sought in this application is hereby granted as prayed.
"Applicant to file undertaking as to damages in the
event it turned out that this order ought not to be made in the
circumstances."
The judge sent the file back to the Admin Judge for
assignment, being a vacation matter.
According to the application, Dr Ajayi was a renowned
medical doctor, businessman and a philanthropist before his demise on April 26,
2020.
He was married to Oluwayemisi and they had children. But
they were separated for 35 years before Tosin's demise.
In the course of the separation, he married former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest-Ajayi and they had a child, Tosin, who lived with Prest-Ajayi until his demise.
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