Wakilii

andreas Wipfler T A Wipfler Designers & Co v Meera Investments Ltd (HCT-00-CC-CS 28 of 2005)

High Court · [2008] UGCOMMC 35 · 2008 Judgment for Plaintiff AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance civil suit for recovery of contract sum for design services and construction work
Decision
Judgment entered for plaintiff for UGX 172,770,293 with interest at court rate from judgment date until payment in full

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Where parties agreed in open court to appoint an expert and be bound by his report, and one party subsequently refused to pay the expert's fees or engage with the report, the court applied its inherent jurisdiction to enforce the agreement and entered judgment in accordance with the expert's findings. The agreement constituted an arbitration in substance, and the party that failed to obtain the report due to non-payment had been given ample opportunity to do so over five months.

Outcome

Judgment entered for plaintiff for UGX 172,770,293 with interest at court rate from judgment date until payment in full

Facts

The plaintiff claimed UGX 385,896,000 for design services and construction work at Munyonyo at the defendant's request. The defendant denied engaging the plaintiff as both architect and contractor, stating he was engaged only as supervisor and abandoned the work. During trial, parties agreed in writing to appoint Buildecon East Africa as an expert to assess the dispute, with the report to be binding on both parties. The expert found total works valued at UGX 1,015,213,000, payments of UGX 842,442,707, and a balance due of UGX 172,770,293. The defendant refused to pay its share of the expert's fees and did not obtain the report. By February 2008, over five months after the report became available, the defendant had made no effort to resolve the payment issue or engage with the report.

Issues

  1. Whether the court could enforce an agreement between parties to be bound by an expert's report where one party refused to pay the expert's fees and declined to accept the report.
  2. Whether the court could enter judgment based on an expert report agreed to be binding by the parties in the absence of one party's acceptance of the report.

Orders

  • Judgment entered for the plaintiff in the sum of UGX 172,770,293.
  • Costs of the suit awarded to the plaintiff.
  • The decretal sum to bear interest at court rate from 24 June 2008 until payment in full.

Rules and key headnotes

Arbitration & ADR — Expert Determination — Binding Agreement to be Bound by Expert Report
Where parties agree in open court to appoint an expert and be bound by the expert's report, that agreement constitutes a binding arbitration arrangement in substance, and the court may enforce the agreement using its inherent jurisdiction even where the parties did not expressly proceed under Order 47 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
Contract Law — Breach of Agreement — Failure to Pay Expert Fees
A party that fails to perform its contractual obligation to pay its share of jointly appointed expert fees cannot then rely on non-receipt of the expert's report as grounds to avoid being bound by the agreement to accept the report.
Civil Procedure — Natural Justice — Adequate Opportunity to be Heard
The rules of natural justice require that parties be provided an opportunity to receive a report and be heard on any matters raised therein. Where a party is given ample opportunity over five months to obtain a report but chooses not to avail itself of that opportunity, it cannot later claim a denial of natural justice.
Civil Procedure — Inherent Jurisdiction — Enforcement of Settlement Agreements
The court has inherent jurisdiction to enforce an agreement made between parties in open court to resolve their dispute through expert determination, and may enter judgment in accordance with the expert's findings where one party refuses to honour the agreement.

Legislation cited (4)

Cases cited (1)

  • David Kulabako v Sadolin Paints (Court of Appeal Civil Appeal No. 65 of 2004)

Full judgment

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

andreas Wipfler T A Wipfler Designers & Co v Meera Investments Ltd (HCT-00-CC-CS 28 of 2005) [2008] UGCommC 35 (23 June 2008)
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.