THE TRANSFER OF TITLE BY NON- OWNERS UNDER THE NEW SALE OF GOODS EDICTS IN NIGERIA

Until recently, the law governing contracts of sale of goods in Nigeria has been essentially the English Sale of Goods Act, 1893, a statute of general application which was in Force in England before the first day of January, 1900.’ The Sale of Goods Act, 1893, until its repeal was applicable in the states of the former Eastern and Northern Regions. The Act was supplemented by the principles of the common law and equity which were net inconsistent with the provisions of the Act. However, the,former Western Region replaced the sale of Goods Act, 1893 in its jurisdiction by the Sale of Goods Law, 1959. That law as well as the common law applied in the states of that former Region. In 1973, Lagos State enacted its own Sale of Goods Law which applied along the same line, that is, with the common law. It should be noted that the fact that the foregoing analysis does not mention customary and Islamic Laws on the subject, does not mean that the writer is oblivious of the wide applicability of them but rather that these are excluded from the scope of the present discourse.