Wakilii

Kassim Abdurahman v Festo Obobi and Others (Civil Appeal 17 of 2018)

High Court · [2026] UGHC 339 · 2026 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Civil appeal from Chief Magistrate's Court judgment dismissed for being filed out of time
Decision
Appeal dismissed as incompetent for being filed out of time without leave

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The High Court dismissed the appeal as improperly filed. The appellant filed a notice of appeal within time but did not file the memorandum of appeal until two years and eight months after judgment. A notice of appeal does not commence an appeal from the Magistrate's Court to the High Court. Section 79 of the Civil Procedure Act requires appeals to be entered within thirty days. An appeal filed out of time without a court order extending time is incompetent and must be struck out.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed as incompetent for being filed out of time without leave

Facts

The appellant appealed from a judgment of the Chief Magistrate's Court of Arua delivered on 13 July 2018. The appellant filed a notice of appeal on 16 July 2018, three days after judgment. However, the memorandum of appeal was not filed until 18 March 2021, two years and eight months after the lower court judgment. No application for extension of time was made. The respondents did not file any response to the appeal.

Issues

  1. Whether the appeal was properly filed before the High Court.
  2. Whether the memorandum of appeal filed two years and eight months after judgment was within the statutory time limit.
  3. Whether the court should exercise discretion to extend time for filing the appeal.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondents.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Appeals — Commencement of Appeal from Magistrate's Court to High Court
A notice of appeal does not commence an appeal from the Magistrate's Court to the High Court; an appeal is commenced by filing a memorandum of appeal in accordance with Order 43 rule 1(1) of the Civil Procedure Rules.
Civil Procedure — Appeals — Time Limits — Mandatory Nature of Section 79 Civil Procedure Act
Section 79 of the Civil Procedure Act requires every appeal to be entered within thirty days of the date of the decree or order; this provision is mandatory and must be complied with strictly.
Civil Procedure — Appeals — Filing Out of Time — Competence of Appeal
An appeal filed out of time without an order of court extending time is incompetent and ought to be struck out; filing a memorandum of appeal out of time without an order extending time renders the memorandum not properly before the court and no appeal exists at all.
Civil Procedure — Limitation — Statutes of Limitation — Strict and Inflexible Nature
Statutes of limitation are strict and inflexible enactments whose overriding purpose is that litigations shall be automatically stifled after a fixed length of time, irrespective of the merits of a particular case.

Legislation cited (3)

Cases cited (3)

  • Maria Onyango Ochola and Others v J. Hannington Wasswa [1996] HCB 43
  • Ssekazi Godfrey v Kyeyune David (Civil Appeal No. 109 of 2015)
  • Re Application of Mustapha Ramathan (Civil Appeal No. 25 of 1996)

Full judgment

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

Kassim Abdurahman v Festo Obobi and Others (Civil Appeal 17 of 2018) [2026] UGHC 339 (14 April 2026)
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.