Our Chief vigorously labored to convince me of the irrelevance of lawyers in real estate transactions. He hit his chest severally to convince me severally that he was an authority in real estate investment and as such couldn’t be wrong discussing it. To buttress his point and finally nail the coffin; chief dashed into his house an root out a huge pile of documents as his proof of rich investments in Real estate. He dropped on the table and challenged me to feed my eyes. When I did; all that confronted me was a pile of Power of Attorney handed over to him by his sellers as proof of purchase. I then asked him of the Deed of Assignments or others as the case may be. He simply told me he didn’t know what I was talking about. To the best of his knowledge; what a buyer is entitled to as proof is Power of Attorney; nothing more, nothing less. I simply laughed and handed his documents back to him but not without a short lecture on how much he had allowed himself to be fooled.
Often, when we talk about a Power of Attorney (in Nigeria), it is often in relation to land matters. Suffice to say that the use of a power of attorney is very broad and diverse as it crosses almost all human endeavors. The Nigerian courts have defined a Power of Attorney in several cases. A prominent one of such definitions from the Supreme Court of Nigeria is hereunder quoted:
“… A Power of Attorney is a document, and may be under seal, which authorizes a person to act for another person as his agent. The person who donates the power is called the ‘donor’ while the person donated is called the ‘donee.’ The power conferred on the donee may be either general or special” This is Wali, JSC, Chime v. Chime, (2001) LPELR-24858(SC)(at page 33)”
Power of Attorney mostly transfers authority to act as if the donor was personally doing same. Sometimes, when you are about to undergo serious medical procedure such as surgery, you may be given a document asking you to sign a Power of Attorney where you appoint a person to take decisions on your behalf should any complications arise during the procedure and you are unable to do so for yourself. In the United States of America some years ago; this was a major lacuna with same-sex married couples. When one partner was sick and could not make decisions adjudged to be sound on their own; the other partner could not make decisions on their behalf because there was no legal relationship between them. Instead the closest family member would be the one to act on behalf of the partner who is at the moment incapacitated, unless there was a Power of Attorney. Even estranged family members had more authority than a partner of many years to make the decisions that needed to be made by or for the partner who is medically unfit.
Power of Attorney can also be used by a proprietor or company to confer powers to a manager to act on his behalf to perform certain functions or take key decisions in the company on his behalf. It is also used by the elderly family members who give certain powers over their affairs to their children or other persons. In giving powers, the donor (principal) cannot give the donee (attorney) more powers than he lawfully has. For instance, in the sale of property, the donor must be a person that has title to the property and can legally sell same legally.
…to be continued
