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Chandaran Associates v Kampala Cement Company Limited (MISCELLANEOUS CAUSE NO. 15 OF 2019)

High Court · [2020] UGHCCD 177 · 2020 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application under section 98 of the Civil Procedure Act and section 33 of the Judicature Act to vacate caveats on motor vehicles
Decision
Application dismissed with costs; caveats on motor vehicles remain in place pending determination of winding up proceedings in the commercial court

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Court dismissed application to vacate caveats on motor vehicles registered in the applicant's name. The applicant owed the respondent money from cement purchases and had filed no security for payment. The court held that while the insolvency proceedings were pending in the commercial court, it was disinclined to lift the caveats as the applicant presented no guarantee for payment of the debt.

Outcome

Application dismissed with costs; caveats on motor vehicles remain in place pending determination of winding up proceedings in the commercial court

Facts

The Applicant, a company owning fifteen motor vehicles, applied to vacate caveats placed on those vehicles by the Respondent. In March 2015, the Applicant obtained a credit facility of UGX 4,000,000,000 from the Respondent for cement purchases. By February 2018, the Applicant defaulted on payments, owing over UGX 2,955,496,339. The Respondent issued demand letters which were not honoured and commenced insolvency proceedings vide Company Cause No. 3 of 2018 in the commercial court seeking to recover UGX 3,306,836,339 with interest. The Respondent then applied to caveat the Applicant's motor vehicles to prevent their transfer to third parties, fearing they might be sold to frustrate recovery. The Applicant argued it had never provided logbooks as security, remained liquid with assets worth approximately UGX 21,060,000,000, and that its business was being crippled because the caveats prevented it from obtaining bank loans using the vehicles as collateral.

Issues

  1. Whether the caveats placed on the Applicant's motor vehicles should be vacated.
  2. Whether the Respondent wrongfully caveated the Applicant's vehicles.
  3. Whether the Applicant is entitled to general and punitive damages for the caveating of the vehicles.

Orders

  • Application dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the Respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Caveats on Property — Discretion to Vacate — Relationship to Pending Proceedings
Where insolvency proceedings are pending in a competent court and the debtor seeks to vacate caveats placed on property by the creditor, the court may decline to lift the caveats where the debtor presents no security or guarantee for payment of the admitted debt and the matter is more appropriately determined as part of the substantive insolvency proceedings.
Commercial Law — Credit Facilities — Default — Creditor's Remedies
A creditor who has advanced credit facilities to a debtor and who faces default may caveat the debtor's assets to prevent dissipation pending determination of recovery proceedings, and such caveats do not prevent the debtor from using the assets in its business but only prevent transfers to third parties.

Legislation cited (2)

Full judgment

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

Chandaran Associates v Kampala Cement Company Limited (MISCELLANEOUS CAUSE NO. 15 OF 2019) [2020] UGHCCD 177 (10 June 2020)
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.