Wakilii

Katasi Lilian Sherinah t a Four Star Agencies v Nation Media Group Limited (Civil Suit No. 0166 of 2021)

High Court · [2025] UGCOMMC 278 · 2025 Judgment for Defendant AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance civil suit for alleged fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment
Decision
Suit dismissed with costs to the Defendant

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.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The court held that while there were a series of contracts between the parties for commission-based advertising services, there was no express or implied exclusive or permanent contract granting the plaintiff sole authority to bring business from UNRA to the defendant. The defendant retained the right to engage other parties or procure advertisements directly. The plaintiff failed to establish unjust enrichment as she could not prove she introduced UNRA to the defendant, and no outstanding commissions were owed. The suit was dismissed with costs to the defendant.

Outcome

Suit dismissed with costs to the Defendant

Facts

The plaintiff, trading as Four Star Agencies, claimed she and her late mother had worked as advertising agents for the defendant since 2005, securing clients including UNRA and earning commission. After her mother's death in 2014, the plaintiff continued the relationship. In 2020, the defendant assigned the UNRA account to another agent, Ms. Atuheire Dorothy, without notice to the plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. The defendant denied having any contract with the plaintiff, asserting it maintained full control over account assignments and that the plaintiff's mother's business relationships could not automatically transfer to the plaintiff without specific contractual agreement. The defendant's witness testified that no agent held permanent accounts, that UNRA had dealt with the defendant's predecessor entities before the plaintiff's involvement, and that all commissions owed to the plaintiff had been paid in full as of May 2021.

Issues

  1. Whether there is a contract between the Plaintiff and the Defendant
  2. What are the available remedies to the parties?

Orders

  • Suit dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the Defendant.

Rules and key headnotes

Contract Law — Implied Contracts — Formation from Conduct
A contract may be implied from the conduct of the parties and the circumstances of the case. To determine whether a contract is implied, the court must examine the parties' conduct and the surrounding circumstances, inferring their tacit understanding from their actions.
Contract Law — Commercial Arrangements — Series of Contracts Distinguished from Exclusive Agreement
A series of commission-based commercial transactions does not, without more, create an exclusive or permanent contractual relationship. Where parties engage in repeated transactions but there is no evidence of an agreement granting exclusivity or permanence, either party retains the right to terminate the arrangement or engage other parties.
Contract Law — Exclusivity — Burden of Proof
Where one party claims the existence of exclusive contractual terms while the other disputes them, the absence of a written agreement or corroborating evidence indicates there was no meeting of the minds on such terms. The party asserting exclusivity bears the burden of proving it.
Commercial Law — Unjust Enrichment — Elements
To establish unjust enrichment, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant has been enriched by the receipt of a benefit, that this enrichment is at the expense of the plaintiff, and that the retention of the enrichment is unjust. The retention of a benefit conferred by another without offering compensation in circumstances where compensation is reasonably expected may constitute unjust enrichment.
Commercial Law — Agency Relationships — Introduction of Clients
A party cannot claim to have introduced a client to another where the client, by virtue of its nature and obligations, would inevitably have engaged the other party regardless of any alleged intervention. Where a government entity is obligated to advertise in media of wide circulation and only two such newspapers exist, an agent cannot reasonably claim credit for introducing that entity to one of the two newspapers.

Legislation cited (2)

Cases cited (2)

  • Green Boat Entertainment Limited v Kampala City Council (Civil Suit No. 0580 of 2003)
  • Cloth Link (U) Ltd v Africa Traders Investments Fund Ltd & Anor (Civil Suit No. 234 of 2010)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Katasi Lilian Sherinah t a Four Star Agencies v Nation Media Group Limited (Civil Suit No. 0166 of 2021) [2025] UGCommC 278 (23 June 2025)
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.