Kampala District Land Board and Another v Babweyaka and Others (CIVIL APPEAL No . 16 OF 2OO2)
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Holding
The trial judge set the suit down for hearing of oral evidence but then decided it on the documents and written submissions alone, repeatedly observing that there was no evidence to prove the parties' claims. The Supreme Court held that this rendered the trial fundamentally defective and amounted to a mistrial; the claims of customary ownership and bona fide occupancy could not fairly be determined without oral evidence. Because the trial was defective, the Court of Appeal ought not to have decided the appeal on its merits. The appeal was allowed, the decisions and orders of both courts below were set aside (save the scheduling conference orders), and the case was remitted to the High Court for the trial to proceed with oral evidence.
Facts
The respondents were among twenty original plaintiffs who occupied a plot of land at Ndeeba in a suburb of Kampala (described as plot 102B/1028, Block 7, Kibuga). On 8 November 2000 the first appellant, the Kampala District Land Board, allocated the suit land to the second appellant, George Mitala, for a lease; he accepted the lease offer, was registered as proprietor on 20 November 2000 and was issued a certificate of title. The respondents, aggrieved by the leasing, sued the appellants seeking declarations that they were bona fide or lawful occupants and/or customary owners of the suit land and that the lease had been granted wrongfully and unlawfully. At a scheduling conference before Katutsi J, agreed facts were recorded, documents were admitted in evidence and five issues were framed. The suit was fixed for hearing of oral evidence, but that hearing never took place; the judge instead decided the matter on the documents and the parties' written submissions, finding no evidence to support the claims and holding the respondents were not bona fide occupants. The Court of Appeal reversed that decision on the merits.
Issues
- Whether the trial in the High Court, conducted without the oral evidence for which the case had been set down, was a mistrial.
- Whether the Court of Appeal was entitled to decide the appeal on its merits where the trial below was fundamentally defective.
- Whether the respondents had established that they were bona fide or lawful occupants, or customary owners, of the suit land.
Orders
- Appeal allowed.
- The decisions and orders of the Court of Appeal and the High Court set aside, except the orders made during the scheduling conference.
- Trial of the suit to proceed in the High Court by recording whatever oral evidence each party may wish to adduce, on the basis of the scheduling conference held on 26/9/2001.
- Case remitted to the High Court for completion of the trial.
- Each party to bear its own costs in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal; costs in the trial court to abide the results of the resumed trial.
Key headnotes
Legislation cited (4)
- Land Act 1998 s.30(1)
- Land Act 1998 s.30(2)
- Land Regulations S.I. No. 16 of 2001
- Civil Procedure Rules Order XB