Musiitwa v Electoral Commission & Anor (Civil Reference No.17 of 2007)

Court of Appeal · [2016] UGCA 89 · 2016 Reference Allowed (Costs Reduced) ✦ AI-generated summary ↓ Download

Jurisdiction

Uganda

Case Type

Reference from the taxation ruling of the Assistant Registrar (Taxing Officer) on instruction fees awarded in an election application

Decision

Reference allowed; instruction fees reduced from Shs 10,000,000/- to Shs 5,000,000/-

The full judgment

Read the complete, verbatim text of this judgment.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions — always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The Court of Appeal, on a reference from the Taxing Officer, held that the award of Shs 10,000,000/- as instruction fees on an application merely to strike out a notice of appeal was too high and unreasonable. Applying Rule 9 of the Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions and the principle that interlocutory matters attract lower instruction fees, the Court found the application had not engaged counsel intensely enough to justify the sum. The Court set aside the Taxing Officer's award and substituted it with Shs 5,000,000/-, allowing the reference, while directing that the agreed payment schedule be followed for the balance.

Facts

The reference arose from Election Application No. 005 of 2006, in which the appellant sought to strike out the respondent's notice of appeal on the ground that the respondent lacked locus to appeal against an interlocutory order. That application was dismissed with costs to the respondent. The respondent's bill of costs was taxed ex parte and Shs 10,000,000/- was awarded as instruction fees. Efforts to stay execution were rejected and execution was allowed to proceed against the appellant. To secure his liberty and avoid civil imprisonment, the appellant entered into a consent with the respondent, including a payment schedule and post-dated cheques, but filed this reference challenging the quantum of instruction fees as manifestly excessive and inconsistent with awards in similar matters.

Issues

Whether the award of Shs 10,000,000/- as instruction fees by the Taxing Officer was manifestly excessive and unreasonable in the circumstances.
Whether the Taxing Officer exercised her discretion judiciously and consistently with awards in similar matters.

Orders

The decision of the Taxing Officer is set aside.
The Shs 10,000,000/- award is substituted with Shs 5,000,000/-.
The Reference is considered successful.
The agreed payment schedule shall be followed until the remaining balance is paid.

Key headnotes

Costs — Taxation — Instruction Fees on Reference from Taxing Officer

On a reference, the court will interfere with a Taxing Officer's award of instruction fees where the sum is manifestly excessive or unreasonable having regard to the nature, importance and difficulty of the matter and awards in comparable cases.

Costs — Instruction Fees — Interlocutory Applications

Appeals and applications arising from interlocutory orders, such as an application to strike out a notice of appeal, attract lower instruction fees, in order to avoid excessive costs resulting from a multiplicity of instruction fees in the same litigation.

Costs — Taxation — Consistency of Awards

A Taxing Officer should maintain consistency with sums awarded in cases of a similar nature and should not raise costs to a level that confines access to court to only the wealthy.

Legislation cited (1)

Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions S.I.13-10, Third Schedule, Rule 9

Cases cited (3)

Yesero Mugenyi v Philemon Wandera and Others (Civil Reference No. 71 of 2004)
John Cossy Odomel v Electoral Commission and Another (Election Application No. 17 of 2006)
National Council of Higher Education v Bangu Aggrey Fredrick (Election Petition Appeal No. 6 of 2006)

Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.