Kalisa v Nyangire & 2 Ors (Civil Reference No. 116 of 2013)

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

Sitting as a single Justice of Appeal, the Court held that no law confers a right of appeal or reference to a single Justice from a Registrar's decision granting or declining an interim order of stay of execution. Appellate jurisdiction is a creature of statute and cannot be inferred or implied. Although Practice Direction No.1 of 2004 vested Registrars with enhanced powers, it created no corresponding right of appeal. The Court declined to follow Butera Edward v Mutalemwa Godfrey, holding it was decided per incuriam. An aggrieved party should instead file a fresh application before a single Justice. The reference was struck out for want of jurisdiction, with no order as to costs.

Outcome

Reference struck out for want of jurisdiction with no order as to costs

Facts

The applicant filed a memorandum of reference to a single Justice of Appeal challenging a decision of the Assistant Registrar dated 4 July 2013, which declined to grant an interim order of stay of execution of a High Court decree pending the determination of a substantive application for stay of execution pending appeal. The applicant alleged the Registrar erred in failing to find that the conditions for an interim order had been satisfied and in assuming the jurisdiction of an appellate court by considering the merits of the appeal. At the hearing, counsel for the applicant conceded there was no specific law granting a right of appeal against a Registrar's decision on an interim order of stay of execution, but argued that the practice in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court had become law. The single Justice raised and determined the question of jurisdiction on its own motion.

Issues

1. Whether the Court of Appeal has jurisdiction to entertain a reference to a single Justice of Appeal from a decision of a Registrar declining to grant an interim order of stay of execution.
2. Whether the Assistant Registrar erred in failing to find that the applicants satisfied the grounds for an interim order of stay of execution.

Orders

• Reference struck out for want of jurisdiction.
• No order as to costs.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (8)

• Judicature Act s.12
• Judicature Act s.41(1)(v)
• Judicature Act s.48(1)(b)
• Court of Appeal Rules r.53
• Court of Appeal Rules r.15(4)
• Court of Appeal Rules r.110(3)
• Court of Appeal Rules r.55(2)
• Practice Direction No.1 of 2004

Cases cited (5)

• Benson Ongom v Sebunya Robert (Civil Application No. 140 of 2013)
• Butera Edward v Mutalemwa Godfrey (Civil Reference No. 70 of 2013)
• Attorney General v Shah (No.4) [1971] EA 50
• Baku Raphael Obudra and Obiga Kania v Attorney General (Constitutional Appeal No. 1 of 2005)
• Supreme Court Civil Application No. 31 of 2004

Cases citing this judgment (4)

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.

• Bagoola Ngobi v Kyobe Inyensiko (Misc Cause 6 of 2016)
• Kalisa v Karumu & 2 Ors (Civil Reference No 139 of 2013)
• Kalisa v Nyangire & 2 Ors (Civil Reference No 139 of 2013)
• Bagonza & 9 Ors v Kimala & 4 Ors (Civil Reference No. 63 of 2013)

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