Kawere & 4 Others v Temba & Another (Miscellaneous Application 1196 of 2024)

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.

Holding

Held that where an underlying land dispute requires the estate of a deceased person to be represented, administrators pendente lite may be appointed under Succession Act s.218 even though the pending suit is not in the name of the deceased. The court appointed the respondents as administrators pendente lite solely for representing the estate in the land suit. The plaint was permitted to be amended to include the second respondent. Preliminary objections that the application should have been filed in Family Division were dismissed, as the matter related to land ownership.

Outcome

Application granted; respondents appointed as limited administrators to represent estate in pending land suit only

Facts

The applicants filed Civil Suit No. 1524 of 2023 against the 1st respondent, who purported to be the administrator of the estate of the late Zakaliya Ssekandi. The suit concerned land that the late Chrizestom Nganda had purchased from the late Zakaliya Ssekandi, but Ssekandi died on 10 April 1973 before transferring title. The 1st respondent was registered as proprietor in his capacity as administrator. As the suit proceeded, the applicants' counsel requested certified copies of the letters of administration. The 1st respondent then disclosed that his application for letters of administration had been dismissed on 29 April 2021, meaning the estate had no appointed administrators. The applicants therefore sought appointment of administrators pendente lite to enable the suit to continue, and amendment of the plaint to include the 2nd respondent.

Issues

1. Whether the respondents can be appointed as administrators pendente lite for purposes of representing the estate of the deceased in the pending suit?
2. Whether the plaint in the main suit can be amended to include the 2nd respondent as a defendant?

Orders

• The respondents are appointed administrators pendente lite for the purpose of representing the estate of the late Zakaliya Ssekandi for purposes of proceeding with the suit.
• The plaint in Civil Suit No. 1524 of 2023 be amended to include the 2nd respondent among the defendants.
• Costs of the application to be in the main cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (6)

• Civil Procedure Act s.98
• Succession Act s.218
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 1 rule 10
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 6 rule 19
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 24 rules 4 and 12
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 52 rules 1, 2 and 3

Cases cited (1)

• Okway John Kimbo v Oddia Nuru & Another (Miscellaneous Application No. 0039 of 2016)

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