Kaumba v Dabule [2018] UGSC 29

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

On an application before a single Justice of the Supreme Court, the court restated that an interim order to preserve the status quo requires three conditions: a competent notice of appeal, a pending substantive application, and a serious threat of execution before that application is heard. A notice of appeal had been lodged and a temporary-injunction application was pending. The Court of Appeal having held the disputed property to be the respondent's personal property, nothing prevented him from obtaining title and alienating it, which would render the substantive application nugatory. The court found this constituted a serious threat and granted the interim order restraining the respondent from disposing of the property pending determination of the substantive application.

Outcome

Interim order granted to preserve the status quo pending the hearing of the substantive application for a temporary injunction (Civil Application No. 02 of 2018).

Facts

The respondent, stepfather to the applicant, purchased the suit property at Plot 21 Kampala Road in 1976 and deposited its certificate of title with a bank before going into exile in 1979. During his exile his wife, holding powers of attorney, obtained a special certificate of title in her own name after the duplicate could not be traced. On the wife's death the respondent obtained letters of administration and was registered as administrator on the special title; the lost duplicate title was later recovered. The applicant, a beneficiary of his mother's estate, lodged a caveat. The High Court held the property belonged to the respondent personally, not as administrator, and ordered cancellation of the wife's title and the caveat; the Court of Appeal confirmed that decision. The applicant lodged a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court and a substantive application for a temporary injunction, then sought this interim order to prevent the respondent obtaining title and alienating the property in the interim.

Issues

1. Whether the applicant satisfied the conditions for the grant of an interim order to preserve the status quo pending the hearing of a substantive application for a temporary injunction.
2. Whether there was a serious threat that the disputed property would be alienated before the substantive application could be determined.

Orders

• An interim order restraining the respondent, his agents, servants or anyone claiming under him or under the judgment in Court of Appeal Civil Appeal No. 130 of 2015 from alienating or in any way disposing of the property known as LRV 194 Folio 13 at Plot 21 Kampala Road is granted pending the hearing and disposal of Civil Application No. 02 of 2018.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (7)

• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.2(2)
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.2
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.6
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.41(2)
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.42
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.43
• Judicature (Supreme Court) Rules r.72

Cases cited (6)

• Rukikaire v Incafex Ltd (Civil Application No. 11 of 2015)
• Zubeda Mohamed & Anor v Laila Wallia & Anor (Civil Reference No. 07 of 2016)
• Hwang Sung Industries Ltd v Tajdin Hussein & Others (Civil Application No. 19 of 2008)
• Theodore Ssekikuubo & Others v Attorney General & Others (Constitutional Application No. 04 of 2014)
• Yakobo Senkungu & Others v Cerencio Mukasa (Civil Application No. 5 of 2013)
• Guiliano Gariggio v Claudio Casadio (Civil Application No. 03 of 2013)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

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.

• Nyakabwa and Another v Kalimbi Kairumba and 2 Others (HCT-01-CV-MA 27 of 2024)

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