Five-Year Legal Battle Ends as Court Rules in Dr. Tosin Ajayi’s Estate Case

The Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has declared Adenike Oluwayemisi Ajayi as the only and legitimate widow of the late founder and Chief Executive Officer of First Foundation Hospital, Dr. Tosin Ajayi.

The judgement ends a long-running legal dispute over the deceased’s marital status and estate, it was reported.

Justice Oluwayoyin Odusanya, delivering judgment on Wednesday, gave all the reliefs sought by Mrs. Ajayi and her children, dismissing the claims by former beauty queen Helen Prest that she was also a spouse of the deceased medical practitioner.

The dispute, which started in 2021 following the death of Dr. Ajayi on April 26, 2020, was about the estate of the deceased and the status of his surviving spouse.

The trial lasted nearly five years before the court gave its verdict.

Justice Odusanya held that Mrs. Ajayi was still legally married to Dr. Ajayi at the time of his death and that their monogamous marriage was never dissolved.

Arguments that the couple’s long separation amounted to a break-up of the marriage were dismissed by the court.

Separation does not automatically terminate a legally valid marriage, even if it is of long duration, the judge said.

The court agreed with the submissions of counsel to the claimants, Mr. Kunle Adegoke (SAN) that the marriage between Dr. and Mrs. Ajayi subsisted during the lifetime of the deceased.

Helen Prest’s claim that she had contracted a Kalabari customary marriage with Dr. Ajayi was a major issue in the case.

But the court found that she did not provide credible evidence to back up the claim.

Justice Odusanya dismissed the claim of customary marriage as an afterthought and pointed out that Prest had taken inconsistent positions in previous legal proceedings.

The court pointed out that in previous suits she had variously described herself as a common-law partner and, at another time, as in a civil-law union with the deceased.

The judge further ruled that Prest had failed to prove critical elements of the alleged customary marriage including the date and venue of the ceremony.

The court stated that there was no documentary or photographic evidence to support her claim.

The court also found that the alleged customary marriage would have been invalid in any event, as the evidence before the court showed that Prest was still legally married to her former husband, Mr. Davies, at the time of her alleged marriage to Dr. Ajayi.

Consequently, the court rejected her claim to spousal status and affirmed Mrs Ajayi as the sole legally recognised spouse of the deceased.

Justice Odusanya also upheld Mrs. Ajayi’s entitlement to one third of Dr. Ajayi’s personal estate and ruled that she is the only spouse entitled to apply for letters of administration over the estate.

The ruling effectively closes the chapter on the dispute at the High Court and maintains the legal position that separation is not enough to end a valid marriage without a formal dissolution.

With the ruling, Mrs Ajayi and her children got all the reliefs sought in the suit while Helen Prest’s claims to recognition as a spouse of the late hospital founder were rejected in their entirety.