The court gave the directive last Thursday when the appeal filed by Williams’ eldest son, Oladipupo Williams (SAN) came up for hearing. The court declined to hear the appeal, but directed parties to work out a solution to the dispute among themselves. Justice Sylvester Ngwuta,who presided over the proceedings,told parties in the appeal that the court would not hear the appeal. Justice Ngwuta said: “The only thing we want to hear from you is the report of settlement.” He adjourned the appeal to November 7 for the Williams to inform the court about the agreement they reached in resolving the decade-long dispute. The court asked those present – Ladi and Tokunbo – to involve all other parties in reaching agreeable solution. To ensure that everyone was carried along in the negotiation to arrive at an outof-court settlement, Ladi applied to the court to compel the remaining two children to come to court at the next adjourned date. The court agreed and made an order directing all the children to come to the court on November 7. Justice Ngwuta and other Justices ensured that Ladi and the youngest of the siblings, Tokunbo Williams (SAN), who represented the respondents, hugged each other before adjourning proceedings. In the appeal, Ladi Williams and Kayode Williams were listed as appellants, while Folarin Williams and Tokunbo Williams were the respondents. Williams died on 29 March 2005 leaving the four male children behide. His wife had died earlier. At the time of his death, it was believed that he did not make a will and was presumed to have died intestate. As a result, his fourons, who are now parties in the appeal, entered into an agreement on how the estate should be shared in view of the belief that their father died without making a will. In the appeal, Ladi and Kayode are asking the Supreme Court to hold that since their father made a Will in 1954, the Will should be upheld while an arrangement to refer the dispute over the estate to arbitration should be dis-countenanced. They faulted the decision of the Court of Appeal in Lagos which held that the dispute be referred to arbitration. They argued that the issues involved were not issues that could be resolved by arbitration, but by a court of competent jurisdiction.]]>