Wakilii

Bang Cheng Investment Co. Limited v Roko Construction Co. Limited (Miscellaneous Application 2427 of 2023)

High Court · [2024] UGCOMMC 10 · 2024 Application Granted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for leave to amend plaint in Civil Suit No. 801 of 2021
Decision
Application granted; applicant permitted to amend plaint to correct respondent's name

Observed later treatment

Cited — treatment unverified cited in 1 (treatment unverified) Sequitur — Uganda’s citator · Derived from citing cases in the Wakilii corpus — not an assertion that this case is good law.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

No adverse treatment recorded Cited 1 time with no adverse treatment recorded; not yet tested on the merits. Derived from citing cases in the Wakilii corpus — a deterministic signal, not legal advice.

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 High Court Commercial Division held that an application to amend a plaint to correct the respondent's name from Roko Construction Co. Ltd to Roko Construction Limited was properly brought under Order 6 Rules 19 and 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules. The error was a misnomer rather than a suit against a non-existent party, capable of being cured by amendment where a reasonable person would conclude the drafters intended to refer to the correctly named entity. Leave to amend was granted.

Outcome

Application granted; applicant permitted to amend plaint to correct respondent's name

Facts

The applicant filed Civil Suit No. 801 of 2021 against Roko Construction Co. Ltd, seeking payment of outstanding sums. The applicant subsequently applied to amend the plaint to correct a typographical error in the respondent's name, which should have been Roko Construction Limited. The respondent opposed, arguing it was a non-existent party and could not be sued. Evidence showed the parties had exchanged documents using various iterations of the name, including receipts addressed to Roko Construction Co. Ltd and Roko Construction Limited, which the respondent had acknowledged without objection.

Issues

  1. Whether the application was brought under the wrong law.
  2. Whether an application brought against a non-existent party can be cured.
  3. Whether the applicant should be granted leave to amend the pleadings.

Orders

  • Application granted.
  • Costs to abide by the main cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Amendment of Pleadings — Jurisdiction — Proper Legal Basis
An application for amendment of a plaint is properly brought under Order 6 Rules 19 and 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules, which empower the court at any stage of proceedings to allow either party to alter or amend pleadings in such manner and on such terms as may be just, for the purpose of determining the real questions in controversy.
Civil Procedure — Amendment — Misnomer Distinguished from Non-Existent Party
A misnomer, which is a mistake in naming a person in a legal instrument where the correct person is certain but incorrectly named, can be cured by amendment of pleadings. This is distinct from a suit against a non-existent party where there is a change in identity due to inability to identify the correct person, which cannot be cured by amendment.
Civil Procedure — Misnomer — Reasonable Person Test
The test for determining whether a naming error constitutes a misnomer is whether a reasonable person reading the name in all the circumstances and looking at the documents as a whole would say 'of course it must mean so-and-so, but they have got the name wrong'. The question is to which individual would a reasonable person attribute the name, construed by reference to known background facts.
Civil Procedure — Amendment of Pleadings — Principles for Granting Leave
Leave to amend pleadings will be granted where: (a) no injustice is caused to the other party, or if caused can be compensated by costs; (b) the amendment enables determination of the real question in controversy; (c) the amendment does not prejudice the rights of the opposite party; (d) the application is not malafide; (e) multiplicity of proceedings is avoided; and (f) the amendment does not substitute one distinct cause of action for another or change the subject matter into one of substantially different character.

Legislation cited (7)

Cases cited (10)

  • Wasswa Primo v Moulders (U) Limited (HCM No. 685 of 2017)
  • Fort Hall Bakery Supply Company v Fredick Muigai Wangoe (1959) EA 474
  • AC Yafeng Construction Limited v The Registered Trustees of Living Word Assembly Church (MA No. 0001 of 2021)
  • Trust Ventures Ltd v Powerfoam (U) Ltd (Civil Suit No. 669 of 2017)
  • AC Yafeng Construction Limited v Registered Trustees of Living Word Assembly Church and Anor
  • J. B. Kholi & Others v Bachulal Popatlal [1964] EA 219
  • Davies v Elsby Brothers Ltd [1960] 3 All ER
  • Gaso Transport Services (Bus) Ltd v Obene (SCCA No. 4 of 1994) [1990-1994] 1 EA 88
  • Eastern Bakery v Castelino [1958] 1 EA 461
  • Mulowooza & Brothers Ltd v Shah & Co. Ltd (SCCA No. 26 of 2010)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Bang Cheng Investment Co. Limited v Roko Construction Co. Limited (Miscellaneous Application 2427 of 2023) [2024] UGCommC 10 (11 January 2024)
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.