Emmejje & Another v Asegoit (Civil Application 35 of 2024)

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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

On an application for an interim stay of execution, the court held that such an order may issue where the applicant shows that a notice of appeal has been lodged, that a substantive application for stay is pending, and that there is a serious threat of execution before that application can be heard. Finding that the applicants had lodged a notice of appeal, that Civil Application No. 24 of 2024 was pending, and that the respondent had already obtained a garnishee order and was pursuing further execution, the single judge held that a serious, undisputed threat of execution existed and granted the interim stay pending disposal of the substantive application, with costs to abide the main cause.

Outcome

Interim stay of execution granted pending disposal of the substantive application (Civil Application No. 24 of 2024)

Facts

The Standard Gauge Railway Project paid compensation of approximately UGX 227,000,000 into the estate account of the late Martin Okacuga, whose land had been affected by the project. The applicants, said to be among the estate's beneficiaries, contended the money should be shared among all beneficiaries. The respondent, one of the late man's widows whose home had been affected, filed Tororo High Court Miscellaneous Application No. 279 of 2022 claiming entitlement to the compensation; the trial judge ordered the money paid to her. The applicants filed a notice of appeal and an appeal (Civil Appeal No. 1353 of 2023), and a substantive stay application (Civil Application No. 24 of 2024). Meanwhile the respondent obtained a garnishee order and recovered UGX 100,000,000 from the estate account, applied to execute a further UGX 5,500,000 in taxed costs, and pursued contempt proceedings. The applicants sought an interim stay of execution pending the substantive application.

Issues

1. Whether the applicants satisfied the conditions for the grant of an interim order of stay of execution pending the determination of the substantive application for stay of execution.

Orders

• An interim order of stay of execution of the orders in Tororo High Court Miscellaneous Application No. 279 of 2022 is granted until the disposal of Court of Appeal Civil Application No. 24 of 2024.
• Costs of this application shall abide the main cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (3)

• Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions r.6(2)(b)
• Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions r.43
• Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions r.2

Cases cited (3)

• Hwang Sung Industries Ltd v Tajdin Hussein and 2 Others (Civil Application No. 19 of 2008)
• Dr. Ahmed Muhammed Kisuule v Greenland Bank (In Liquidation) (Miscellaneous Application No. 7 of 2010)
• Mugenyi v National Insurance Corporation (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 13 of 1984)

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