Wakilii

Alcon International Ltd v National Social Security Fund (Miscellaneous Application No. 509 of 2014)

High Court · [2017] UGCOMMC 124 · 2017 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for leave to amend plaint in underlying civil suit following Supreme Court finding that original plaintiff was not party to contract
Decision
Application dismissed with costs

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The court dismissed the application for leave to amend the plaint. The Supreme Court had found that the applicant was not a party to the building contract and that the original proceedings were tainted with fraud and illegalities. Allowing the amendment would promote illegality. The proposed amendment would change the entire cause of action and amount to a fresh suit rather than an amendment.

Outcome

Application dismissed with costs

Facts

In 1994 the respondent entered into a building contract with M/S Alcon International Limited, a company incorporated in Kenya, for construction work on Plot 1 Pilkington Road Kampala. In 1998 Alcon International Ltd (a different entity) filed suit claiming breach of contract. The matter proceeded through arbitration and appeals to the Supreme Court. In 2009 the Supreme Court found that the plaintiff company that had sued was not the same entity that signed the contract with the respondent, and that the proceedings were tainted with fraud and illegalities. Following the Supreme Court judgment, the applicant sought leave to amend the plaint in the original suit. The applicant claimed that the death of its managing director in 2013 had resulted in loss of documents, necessitating a reduced claim based on available evidence.

Issues

  1. Whether leave should be granted to amend the plaint in circumstances where the Supreme Court had found that the original plaintiff was not a party to the contract and the proceedings were tainted with fraud and illegalities.

Orders

  • Application dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Amendment of Pleadings — Refusal Where Amendment Would Promote Illegality
Where the Supreme Court has found that proceedings were tainted with fraud and illegalities because the plaintiff was not a party to the contract upon which the suit was based, the court will refuse leave to amend the plaint as granting such amendment would promote the illegality and be against court policy.
Amendment of Pleadings — Change of Cause of Action
An amendment that would result in a complete change of the cause of action is not permissible. Where a claim was originally based on a contract to which the plaintiff was not a party, an amendment seeking to claim on a different basis amounts to a fresh suit rather than an amendment.
Privity of Contract — Standing to Sue
Only a party to a contract has standing to sue on that contract. A person who was not a signatory to the contract cannot maintain an action for breach of that contract, even if they took possession of the contract site.

Legislation cited (1)

Cases cited (1)

  • SCCA No. 15 of 2009

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Alcon International Ltd v National Social Security Fund (Miscellaneous Application No. 509 of 2014) [2017] UGCommC 124 (27 October 2017)
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.