Wakilii

Kayanja v Yekee and Another (Civil Suit No. 263 2003)

High Court · [2008] UGHCCD 1 · 2008 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for substitution of legal representative as plaintiff following death of original plaintiff in personal injury suit
Decision
Application for substitution refused; action does not survive death of original plaintiff

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

Application for substitution dismissed. Where a sole plaintiff dies in a tortious personal injury action requiring proof of negligence, the cause of action does not survive. The legal representative cannot continue prosecution as the deceased plaintiff would have been required to prove the defendant's negligence.

Outcome

Application for substitution refused; action does not survive death of original plaintiff

Facts

The original plaintiff, David Kayanja, brought a personal injury suit against the defendants. David Kayanja subsequently died before the matter was disposed of. Nassozi Sylvia, as legal representative of the deceased, applied under Order 24 for substitution as plaintiff to continue prosecuting the matter. The respondent objected, arguing that the personal injury claim abated with the death of the original plaintiff and the legal representative could not proceed.

Issues

  1. Whether an application for substitution of the legal representative as plaintiff should be granted where the original plaintiff in a personal injury suit has died.
  2. Whether a cause of action in tort survives the death of the plaintiff where the plaintiff would have been required to prove negligence.

Orders

  • Application dismissed.
  • Costs of the application to be met by each party.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Death of Parties — Substitution — Application of Order 24 Rules
Where a sole plaintiff dies, the applicable provision for substitution is Order 24(3), which deals with events when a sole plaintiff dies, not Order 24(2) which applies when one of several plaintiffs or defendants dies and the right to sue survives.
Civil Procedure — Abatement — Survival of Cause of Action — Tortious Claims
Under Order 24(1), the death of a plaintiff does not cause a suit to abate if the cause of action survives or continues. However, continuation depends on the nature of the action.
Tort Law — Personal Injury Claims — Survival of Action — Death of Plaintiff
A tortious personal injury action does not survive the death of the plaintiff where the action requires the injured plaintiff to prove the negligence of the defendant, as proof becomes impossible when the plaintiff entitled to the damages is deceased.

Cases cited (1)

  • Pulling v The Great Eastern Railway Company (1882) QBD

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Kayanja v Yekee and Another (Civil Suit No. 263_2003) [2008] UGHCCD 1 (8 April 2008)
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.