N600m Deal: Court Restrains Patricia Technologies From Selling Disputed 15-Hectare Land

Justice E. O. Ashade ruled that the order stands pending the compliance of Veritasi Homes & Properties Ltd – the Claimant/Applicant – with the Lagos State High Court Practice Direction No. 2 of 2019 on Pre-Action Protocol.

The judge adjourned the case until January 13, 2024, for a report of compliance.

The court made the order on November 29, 2023, following an Originating Motion Ex Parte filed by Veritasi Homes & Properties on 13/11/2023 and upon reading the Claimant/Applicant’s affidavit and after hearing its counsel, O.A. Alao with A.D. Edekha (Mrs.).

The real estate firm informed the court that it paid Patricia Technologies Ltd N600 million as the full purchase price for the land, but the tech firm – contrary to the contract – failed to transfer ownership of the land to Veritasi Homes & Properties Ltd.

Rather, and according to the Claimant/Applicant, Patricia Technologies allegedly continued advertising the land for sale and continued selling portions of it off, even after receiving and retaining the N600m.

There was no legal representation for the Defendant/Respondent.

Specifically, Justice Ashade held: “The Defendant, whether by itself, its directors, members of staff, agents, privies, assigns, associates, nominees, servants or any special taskforce, paramilitary officers or other person(s) howsoever described and called, are hereby restrained from using or dealing with all that 15.021 Hectares of land at Plots 6, 7, & 8 Block 4 Idera Scheme Lagos State properly delineated with Survey Plan No. LS/D/BK 416/4/6, 7 & 8 dated 27th July 2021 signed by the Surveyor General of Lagos State and covered by the Lagos State Government Certificate of Occupancy No. 87/87/2021F dated the 17th Day of December, 2021, in any manner pending the Claimant/Applicant’s compliance with the Lagos State High Court Practice Direction No. 2 of 2019 on Pre-Action Protocol.

“The Defendant, whether by itself, its directors, members of staff, agents, privies or any person or agency through the Defendant, are hereby restrained from marketing, attempting to sell and or selling, transferring, alienating or assigning all that 15.021 Hectares of land, pending the Claimant/Applicant’s compliance with the Lagos State High Court Practice Direction No. 2 of 2019 on Pre-Action Protocol.

“Leave is granted to the Claimant to notify the public of the above orders on the Defendant via media/newspaper alerting the unsuspecting public.

“It is ordered that the Claimant or Counsel to the Claimant shall file an undertaking that the Claimant/Applicant shall take steps to fully comply with Pre-Action Protocol.”

Veritasi Homes & Properties Ltd set out its case in the affidavit sworn by its operations manager, Quazeem Famuyiwa.

According to Famuyiwa, Veritasi Homes & Properties and Patricia Technologies – a Lagos-based fintech firm – executed a contract of sale agreement dated 5th January 2023, whereby the Defendant/Respondent agreed to sell/transfer/alienate/assign to the Claimant/Applicant the 15.021 Hectares for N600m.

Patricia Technologies said it was indebted to a firm for N300m and needed to repay that debt from the purchase price of the land.

The parties agreed to an initial payment of N300m so that the Defendant could use that to defray its loan obligations to its creditors and release the title documents to the Claimant/Applicant to aid marketing.

Famuyiwa added: “The agreement between the Claimant and the Defendant was that once the Claimant had paid about the sum of N300million toward the purchase price, the Defendant would release the original title documents to the Claimant and transfer them to the Claimant in advancement of the Sale of Land transaction between parties.

“The Claimant, in fulfilment of his obligation towards the Defendant, had paid the Defendant the total sum of N600m toward the purchase price, which is well beyond the agreed N300m threshold, as agreed by parties.

“Despite this substantial payment made by the Claimant which the Defendant acknowledged by its letters, the Defendant has not yet paid off the outstanding loan balance with its creditors nor released the original title documents as agreed to the Applicant. Instead, the Defendant engaged independent marketers to start marketing the parcel of land to unsuspecting individuals of the public.”