Car and General (U) Ltd v AFS Construction Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 87 of 2015)

Observed later treatment

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.

Holding

Held that an applicant cannot unilaterally withdraw from arbitration proceedings after they have concluded and the award is ready for delivery pending only payment of the arbitrator's fees. The delay in delivering the award was attributable to the applicant's failure to pay fees, not the arbitrator's fault. The applicant failed to establish any of the strict statutory grounds under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act for setting aside an arbitral award. Application dismissed with costs.

Outcome

Application to set aside arbitral award dismissed

Facts

The parties entered into a building contract for construction of a showroom, workshop, car park and access road at a contract sum of USD 637,146.12. The respondent encountered financial difficulties before completion and requested early release of the retention bond. A dispute arose concerning completion of snagging works after practical completion. The parties referred the dispute to arbitration before Arch. G.W Katatumba. The arbitrator informed parties on 30 April 2014 that the award was ready and awaited payment of fees. The respondent paid its share of fees but the applicant refused to pay and purported to withdraw from the proceedings on 14 August 2014. The arbitrator delivered the award on 15 January 2015. The applicant sought to set aside the award on multiple grounds including delay in delivery and alleged procedural irregularities.

Issues

1. Whether the applicant validly withdrew from the arbitration proceedings before delivery of the award.
2. Whether the delay in delivery of the arbitral award beyond the statutory two-month period rendered the award invalid.
3. Whether the arbitral award should be set aside on any of the grounds provided in Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

Orders

• Application dismissed.
• Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (6)

• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. 4 s.34(2)(a)(iv)
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap. 4 s.34(2)(a)(vi)
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.31(1)
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.32
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.33
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.34

Cases cited (2)

• SDV Transami v Agrimag Ltd (Arbitration Cause No. 2 of 2006)
• Charles Crihfield Vs Steven Brown and Home Show LLC in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia No. 34593

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.

• Car & General Ltd v AFS Construction (U) Limited (Misc. Application No. 371 of 2018)

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