Preface

165
It is apparently clear that the statement of claim before the lower court in the
instant case can hardly satisfy these requirements. It is hereunder reproduced
again:
“.....in which Mr. Malick Gaye the plaintiff who lived in Serakunda
has raised the petition against Mr. Edy Touray who also lived in
Banjul, the case is called before Banjul Cadi Court in the subject of
selling the Compound of the late Haja Bintou Jeng of 14 Gloster
street Banjul.”
The above statement is vague, incomplete and ambiguous. It has failed to
satisfy the requirements of a valid statement of claim as we have seen them above
for many reasons. In the first place the statement is not in a narrative form in which
case the court would have recorded it in verbatim or word by word as put forward
by the plaintiff but it is in a third person expressions. 2ndly, the date of death of the
deceased is absent. 3rdly, the details about the gender of the children is also absent.
For instance who and who and how many among them are the female and who and
who are the male. 4thly, it is not clear from the content of the statement whether or
not the parents of the deceased or one of them have survived her. All these vital
pieces of information are conspicuously missing on the face of the claim. Likewise
there is nowhere in the record of proceeding of the lower Court where it is stated
that the Court has sought and received a valuation report in respect of the property
either from the parties or from an independent surveyor. This aspect which is also
an integral part of a valid claim before the Court is not only essential but
unavoidably necessary. The consequential effect of absence of the required and
valid application or statement of claim for distribution of estate and valuation
report before the lower court is so grave that it exposes the whole proceedings of