Wakilii

Equity Bank Uganda Limited & 2 Others v Nassiwa (Civil Appeal 9 of 2020)

High Court · [2023] UGCOMMC 198 · 2023 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First appeal from judgment of Chief Magistrate's Court of Kampala at Mengo in Civil Suit No. 33 of 2015
Decision
Appeal struck out for late filing and late service without leave

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court struck out the appellants' appeal for being filed 54 days out of time without leave and served on the respondent 2 years 4 months after filing. The Court held that Section 79(2) of the Civil Procedure Act freezes time only where the request for proceedings is made within the initial 30-day appeal period, which did not occur here. The Court also held that failure to extract a decree is no longer fatal to an appeal in light of Article 126(2)(e) of the Constitution, and that Rule 4 of the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules on abatement applies only to suits at first instance after mandatory scheduling conferences, not to appeals.

Outcome

Appeal struck out for late filing and late service without leave

Facts

The respondent's husband sent her USD 10,000 from South Africa through MoneyGram on 7 July 2014. On 8 July 2014, she went to Equity Bank's Katwe branch to withdraw the money but was refused because the branch supervisor was not satisfied with her identification documents. On 9 July 2014, the money was withdrawn from Equity Bank's Kawempe branch by a fraudulent person. The respondent reported the matter to police and sued the appellants in the Chief Magistrate's Court. The trial court found in favour of the respondent and awarded her USD 10,000 plus UGX 5,000,000 general damages with interest and costs. The appellants filed an appeal 54 days after judgment and served the memorandum of appeal on the respondent 2 years 4 months later. The respondent raised preliminary objections challenging the appeal's competence on grounds of late filing, late service, failure to extract a decree, and absence of signatures on the served memorandum.

Issues

  1. Whether the appeal was filed out of time and incompetent.
  2. Whether the appeal had abated for want of prosecution.
  3. Whether the failure to extract a decree before filing the appeal rendered it incompetent.
  4. Whether the memorandum of appeal was properly signed.

Orders

  • Appeal struck off the Court record.
  • Costs of the appeal and those in the Court below awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Appeals — Time Limits — Section 79(2) Civil Procedure Act
Section 79(2) of the Civil Procedure Act freezes the running of the 30-day period to file an appeal only where the intending appellant makes a request for the record of proceedings, decree or order before the expiry of the initial 30-day period. A request made after the 30-day period has already lapsed does not entitle the appellant to protection under Section 79(2).
Civil Procedure — Appeals — Service of Memorandum — Time Limits
A memorandum of appeal must be served on the respondent within 21 days from the date the court acknowledges its lodgement. This timeline is derived from Order 49 rule 2 read with Order 5 rule 2 of the Civil Procedure Rules. An appeal filed and served out of time without leave to do so is incompetent and must be struck out.
Civil Procedure — Appeals — Decree — Failure to Extract
In light of Article 126(2)(e) of the Constitution which enjoins courts to administer substantive justice without undue regard to technicalities, the failure to extract a decree or order from the judgment appealed from before lodging the appeal is no longer fatal to an appeal. The constitutional directive in Article 126(2)(e) takes precedence over the statutory requirement in Section 220(1)(a) of the Magistrates Courts Act pursuant to Article 2 of the Constitution.
Civil Procedure — Abatement — Rule 4 Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2019 — Scope of Application
Rule 4 of the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules, S.I. No. 33 of 2019, which provides for automatic abatement of a suit where no application or step is taken for six months after the mandatory scheduling conference, applies only to suits at first instance under Order 17 of the Civil Procedure Rules. It does not apply to appeals or to the exercise of appellate jurisdiction by appellate courts, which are governed by Order 43 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

Legislation cited (11)

Cases cited (10)

  • Kifamunte Henry v Uganda (Supreme Court Criminal Appeal No. 10 of 1997)
  • Pandya v R (1957) EA 32
  • Charles B Bitwire v Uganda (Supreme Court Criminal Appeal No. 23 of 1985)
  • Katsigazi Benson v Lorna Musanyusa Kamau (Misc. Application No. 22 of 2021)
  • John Byekwaso and Another v Yudaya Ndagire (Civil Appeal No. 078 of 2012)
  • Banco Arabe Espanol v Bank of Uganda (Civil Appeal No. 42 of 1998)
  • Standard Chartered Bank (U) Ltd v Grand Hotel (U) Ltd (Civil Appeal No. 13 of 1999)
  • Luzinda George v Edward Wasswa (Civil Appeal No. 39 of 2009)
  • Migadde Richard Lubinga and 2 Others v Nakibuule Sandra and 2 Others (Civil Appeal No. 0053 of 2019)
  • Geoffrey Nangumya t/a Nangumya & Co Advocates v Security Plus (U) Ltd (Misc. Application No. 0858 of 2021)

Full judgment

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

Equity Bank Uganda Limited & 2 Others v Nassiwa (Civil Appeal 9 of 2020) [2023] UGCommC 198 (23 October 2023)
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.