MISREPRESENTATION IN CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION AND AVAILABLE REMEDIES: THE AFRICAN JURISPRUDENCE PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Human society is totally interdependent since no man has it all. Thus, a farmer needs the consumer of his goods, a manufacturer needs consumer of his products and a nation needs the resources of another nation to survive. This relationship will birth a contractual obligation. This appears to be of a great advantage but at the same time, there is a survival risk which also co-exists in view of the fact that there must be dispute and disagreement   as a result of differences in human nature. The exhibition of all these differences may lead to deceit or misrepresentation in contractual obligation ending up in dispute which has to be resolved either judicially or extra-judicially. There are available remedies both in common law and equity under the English legal system such as damages, rescission and restitutio in integrum. In the same vein, in Yoruba traditional legal milieu, the phenomenon, misrepresentation is known to them and its available remedies. They are in form of proverbs, precepts invoked in the course of dispensing justice which are still potent and relevant till today. This paper appraises misrepresentation and its available remedies from the two jurisdictions with a view to pointing out their point of convergences and divergences. It concludes that though these principles may not be formalised under the Yoruba legal parlance, they still serve the same purpose like the English form since the expected end result is justice.