Wakilii

Barugare v Attorney General (Civil Application 46 of 1992)

Supreme Court · [1997] UGSC 14 · 1997 Preliminary Objection Overruled AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for extension of time to serve a notice of appeal; ruling on a preliminary objection to the competence of the application
Decision
Preliminary objection overruled; application for extension of time to be heard on its merits.

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The applicant sought extension of time to serve the notice of appeal. The respondent objected that the application was incompetent because the appeal had been withdrawn without compliance with Rule 93 and had already been called for hearing several times before the notice of withdrawal was filed. The Court held that, although a valid withdrawal of an appeal requires compliance with all the requirements of Rule 93, such withdrawal does not debar an applicant from applying for extension of time to serve a notice of appeal, that service being a first step in instituting an appeal. The preliminary objection was overruled and the application ordered to be heard on its merits.

Outcome

Preliminary objection overruled; application for extension of time to be heard on its merits.

Facts

The applicant was the appellant in Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 13 of 1992. She applied under Rule 4 of the Rules of the Supreme Court for extension of time to serve the notice of appeal on the respondent, who had denied receiving and signing the notice she contended had been served. While that application (filed in December 1993) was pending, the appellant lodged a notice withdrawing the appeal on 1 February 1993, stating she did not intend to prosecute the appeal further. No copy of the notice of withdrawal was served on the respondent, the applicant contending the respondent had not supplied an address for service. When the application came on for hearing, the respondent took a preliminary objection that the application was incompetent because the appeal had been withdrawn without compliance with Rule 93 and had already been called for hearing on three occasions before the notice of withdrawal was filed.

Issues

  1. Whether the application for extension of time to serve the notice of appeal was incompetent for failure to comply with Rule 93 of the Rules of the Supreme Court governing withdrawal of appeals.
  2. Whether withdrawal of the appeal debarred the applicant from applying for extension of time to serve the notice of appeal.

Orders

  • Preliminary objection overruled.
  • Hearing of the merits of the application to proceed.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Appeals — Extension of Time — Effect of Withdrawal of the Appeal
Withdrawal of an appeal does not debar an applicant from applying for extension of time to serve a notice of appeal, service of the notice being a first step in the procedure of instituting an appeal.
Civil Procedure — Appeals — Incompetent Appeal Called for Hearing — Power to Strike Out or Adjourn
Where an incompetent appeal has been called for hearing and no application has been filed to cure the defect, the court may strike out the appeal or adjourn it to allow the necessary application to be made; once it is adjourned for that purpose, the application to cure the defect should be heard on its merits.

Legislation cited (3)

  • Rules of the Supreme Court r.4
  • Rules of the Supreme Court r.93
  • Rules of the Supreme Court r.78

Cases cited (1)

  • Haji Hurdin Matovu v Ben Kiwanuka (Civil Appeal No. 12 of 1991)

Full judgment

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

Barugare v Attorney General (Civil Application 46 of 1992) [1997] UGSC 14 (7 April 1997)
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.