Chima
Umezuruike

- Challenging the decisions of local authorities in matters like allocation of council accommodation, granting and revoking licenses to operate nursery schools and homes for the elderly - Disputes over the entitlement to bury people - Advising on how to make visa applications, particularly those applying from Nigeria to the UK - Completing visa application forms - Preparing covering letters to support applications to the British High Commission - Applications for judicial review where applications have been refused including the Home Office and the Foreign Office - Representation at immigration tribunals

- Honourable Society of the Inner Temple - Elected full member of The Academy of Experts as a Nigerian Barrister - Elected member of The Expert Witness Institute

Examples of Nigerian Law cases Publications - Antoine –v- Barclays Bank [2018] EWCA Civ 2846 (Court of Appeal) - Chima acted for the Appellant at the Court of Appeal in this complex case involving a novel point of law regarding the rectification of an entry at the Land Registry. The Appellant sought to remove from the land register, a legal charge that one Mr T. had created in favour of the Bank. Prior to creating the legal charge in favour of the Bank, Mr T. had been registered as the proprietor of the property in question and as a result of a court order which transferred ownership of the property from the Appellant’s father to him on the basis of forged documents which were presented to the High Court. Before a legal charge can be removed from the land register by the process of rectification, the registration of the legal charge must be a mistake for the purposes of schedule 4 to the Land Registration Act 2002. For it to be a mistake it must be void. The Court of Appeal held that whilst the forged documents that were presented to the High Court were void, the court order that was based on them was not void because whilst the legal concepts of voidness and voidability form part of the English law of contract, they are inapplicable to orders made by a court of unlimited jurisdiction in the course of contentious litigation. Such an order is either irregular or regular. If it is irregular, it can be set aside by the court that made it upon application to that court: if it is regular, it can only be set aside by an appellate court upon appeal if there is one to which an appeal lies. Accordingly, neither the registration of Mr T. as the proprietor of the property nor the subsequent registration of the legal charge that was created by Mr T. was a mistake for the purposes of schedule 4 to the Land Registration Act 2002 - Aribisala v St James' Homes (Grosvenor Dock) Ltd. [2008] EWHC 456 (Ch) - Chima acted for the Claimant in Aribisala v St James' Homes (Grosvenor Dock) Ltd. [2008] EWHC 456 (Ch) where Floyd J dealt with the principles of exercising the court's discretion under s.49(2) LPA 1925 (returning the deposit paid by a prospective buyer of property when the sale was not completed) - Captain Saulawa -v- Captain Abeyratne & Another [2018] EWHC 2463 (Ch) - Chima acted for the Claimant where the court dealt with the principles of giving permission to a claimant to file a fresh claim after the previous claim has been discontinued - Attorney General of Zambia v Meer Care & Desai (A firm) and Others [2006] EWCA Civ 390 (CA ) - Chima acted for six of the defendants, including a former president of Zambia. It was a cross-border case between England and Zambia involving issues of constructive trust and fraud - Corporate Carriages Ltd. v Smith and another Chancery Division 7 November 2005 - Chima acted for the Claimant in this case that involved the fiduciary duties of vendors of shares to the purchaser - AIC Ltd. v Federal Government of Nigeria and Anor [2003] EWHC 1357 (QB) - Chima acted for the Claimant in an application to enforce a judgment that was obtained against the Federal Government of Nigeria in a Nigerian court. The defendant pleaded state immunity in respect of its assets that the claimant sought to attach in London for the enforcement of the Nigerian judgment - Mark v Mark [2005] UKHL 42 (on appeal from [2004] EWCA Civ 168 – Chima acted for the respondent in the House of Lords where the issue was whether a person can be either habitually resident or domiciled in England and Wales if her presence in the United Kingdom is a criminal offence under the Immigration Act 1971 for the purposes of presenting a divorce petition in England and Wales - Moses-Taiga v Taiga [2004] EWCA Civ 1399 – Chima acted for the appellant in the Court of Appeal in this case that dealt with the power of the appellate court to vary the terms of the grant of permission to appeal and the terms of the order for stay pending appeal - R (on the application of Farina HAQQ) –v- HM Coroner for Inner West London and Another [2003] EWHC 3366 (Admin) - Chima acted for one of the widows of the deceased in a dispute as to which of the two widows was entitled to the dead body of their deceased husband who had died intestate - Abdullahi v Mudashiru [2003] ALL ER (D) 477 (Oct) - Chima acted for the executors of the will of the deceased person in a dispute as to who was entitled to his dead body - Giving expert opinion on a ruling regarding Nigerian Constitution s182 (1) (e) where the judge said, “The expert witnesses strongly held contrary views…I preferred and accepted the evidence of Mr Umezeruike, which reinforced my own view” - Giving expert evidence on Nigerian criminal law and constitutional law in a fraud and money laundering trial involving a former Governor of a State in Nigeria (James Ibori) in Southwark Crown Court - Expert evidence on Nigeria constitutional law on behalf of the Crown at the trial of the said James Ibori at Southwark Crown Court, where of the conflicting views of the experts, his was accepted by the Judge - Acting as an expert witness for the defendants at Harrow Crown Court in a case of modern-day slavery, where he gave evidence on the Nigerian customary law of adoption of children - He conducted a complicated trial for the determination of the validity of a customary marriage in the High Court of Lagos State of Nigeria - “Reform of Legal Education and the Legal Profession in 21st Century Nigeria” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column7.html) - “Review of the Civil Procedure Rules in the Various High Courts in Nigeria and the Court of Appeal” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column30.html and The Daily Independent, 9th and 16th September 2010) - “The Concept of Double-decker marriages in Nigeria” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column7.html). - “The Validity of a ceremony of a Nigerian Customary Law Marriage Celebrated outside Nigeria or in Nigeria but Outside the Bride’s Place of Domicile” (published in www.umezchambers.com)