Wakilii

Anandji v Chadha Brothers (Civil Appeal No. 30 of 1948)

East African Court of Appeal · [1950] EACA 629 · 1950 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Appeal from decision of Resident Magistrate's Court at Kericho concerning claim for rent arrears
Decision
Appeal dismissed with costs

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The Court held that under the proviso to section 3 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance, 'decree' for purposes of appeal includes 'judgment', and an appeal is properly filed when a certified copy of the judgment is attached. Points of law set out in the statement of defence are 'taken' in the lower court even if not argued. Section 4 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940 requires only written consent of the Rent Control Board before instituting proceedings; absence of an averment of such consent in the plaint is not fatal. Where the real dispute concerns liability for corrugated iron sheets rather than the landlord-tenant relationship itself, no dispute relating to tenancy arises requiring Board consent. Appeal dismissed.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed with costs

Facts

The respondent plaintiff claimed Sh. 300 from the appellant defendant for rent arrears ending April 1948. The defendant pleaded that the plaint was bad in law for failing to aver a contractual landlord-tenant relationship and for failing to aver consent of the Rent Control Board as required by the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940. The defendant also pleaded that Sh. 375 had been paid: Sh. 150 by cheque and Sh. 225 by set-off for corrugated iron sheets lent to the plaintiff which had not been returned. The defendant testified that he had rented the plot from Mohan Singh Chadha, the plaintiff's son, to whom he had lent the sheets. The Magistrate's Court decreed the suit. The defendant appealed, and the respondent raised preliminary objections that no certified copy of the decree was filed with the memorandum of appeal and that new points not taken in the lower court were raised.

Issues

  1. Whether an appeal is properly filed when a certified copy of the judgment rather than a formal decree is attached to the memorandum of appeal.
  2. Whether points raised in the memorandum of appeal but not argued before the lower court can be said to have been 'taken' in the lower court when they were pleaded in the statement of defence.
  3. Whether the absence of an averment in the plaint of written consent from the Rent Control Board under section 4 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940 is fatal to the suit.
  4. Whether the absence of averments establishing a contractual relationship of landlord and tenant renders the plaint bad in law.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Appeals — Requirements for Filing — Certified Copy of Decree
Under the proviso to section 3 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance, the word 'decree' for purposes of appeal includes 'judgment', and a judgment is appealable notwithstanding that a formal decree may not have been drawn up or may not be capable of being drawn up. Where rules made under an Ordinance conflict with the provisions of the Ordinance itself, the latter must prevail. An appeal is properly filed when a certified copy of the judgment is attached to the memorandum of appeal.
Civil Procedure — Appeals — New Points on Appeal — Points Taken in Lower Court
Points of law set out in the statement of defence filed in the lower court are 'taken' in that court for purposes of appeal, even if they were not argued before the trial judge and the judge did not apply his mind to them. The points were embodied in the pleadings for the consideration of the court.
Statutory Interpretation — Rent Control — Consent of Rent Control Board — Effect of Non-Averment
Section 4 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940 requires the written consent of the Rent Control Board before proceedings arising out of a dispute between landlord and tenant may be instituted in any court. Nothing in this section deprives a plaintiff of a cause of action; the most that can be read into the section is that proceedings may not be instituted on that cause of action until the consent of the administrative body has been obtained. The absence in the plaint of an averment that such consent was obtained is not fatal to the suit.
Land & Property — Landlord and Tenant — Disputes Relating to Tenancy — Scope of Rent Control Board Jurisdiction
Where the real dispute between parties is as to liability for corrugated iron sheets and not as to the tenancy itself, there is no dispute between landlord and tenant relating to a tenancy within the meaning of section 4 of the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940, notwithstanding that a landlord-tenant relationship exists between the parties at the time in question.
Civil Procedure — Pleadings — Sufficiency of Averments — Landlord and Tenant Relationship
A plaint claiming rent arrears is not bad in law for the omission of express averments establishing a contractual relationship of landlord and tenant where that relationship is not in dispute between the parties.

Legislation cited (4)

  • Civil Procedure Ordinance O.XLI r.1(1)
  • Civil Procedure Ordinance s.2
  • Civil Procedure Ordinance s.3
  • Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Ordinance 1940 s.4

Cases cited (1)

  • Luttrell v Addicott (1946) 2 All ER 625

Full judgment

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Anandji v Chadha Brothers (Civil Appeal No. 30 of 1948) [1950] EACA 629 (1 January 1950)
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.