A Federal High Court in Lagos has declared that a former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest-Ajayi, is entitled to 50 percent of the net assets of her late husband, Dr Tosin Ajayi.
Justice Tijjani Ringim gave the ruling in a suit by Miss Tomisin Ajayi and Mrs. Helen Prest Ajayi as 1st and 2nd Applicants, filed through their counsel Mr Abiodun Jellili Owonikoko (SAN).
The 1st to 4th Respondents/Applicants in the suit are First Foundation Medical Engineering Company Ltd, Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); Mrs. Oluwayemisi Ajayi, and Mr Patrick Abak, a lawyer.
First Foundation Medical Engineering Company was owned and registered by the late Dr Tosin Ajayi.
The judge granted the 13 reliefs sought by the Applicants following the respondents’ failure to controvert them.
They include that Prest-Ajayi is “entitled to 50% (or so much as the Court may sanction upon audit and valuation) constituting the net assets of the firm, after satisfying all just taxes and debts as family and investment partner of Dr. Tosin Ajayi, from 1996 till 26 April 2020 to the exclusion of Mrs Oluwayemisi Ajayi;
An order of the court directing an investigation into the affairs of the firm by the Registrar-General and for the Registrar-General to call for an extraordinary general meeting to appoint additional directors for the firm.
It also includes, among others, an order directing the Registrar-General to audit and verify the firm’s assets, a perpetual injunction restraining the Registrar-General from recognizing Mrs Oluwayemisi Ajayi as entitled to run the firm, and a perpetual injunction restraining Mrs Oluwayemisi Ajayi from dealing with the assets and properties belonging to the Defendant and/or Late Dr Ajayi.
Justice Ringim held: “Despite the service of processes filed on the respondents and affidavits of service duly filed in the court, the respondents failed to use the opportunity afforded to them by law to controvert the averment of the plaintiff in the affidavits.
“However, it is a settled law that evidence not controverted are deemed admitted.
