Wakilii

Kironde v Kobil (U) Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 828 of 2021)

High Court · [2022] UGCOMMC 44 · 2022 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for leave to amend pleadings in pending civil suit arising from commercial dispute
Decision
Application for leave to amend pleadings dismissed with costs to the respondent

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Application for leave to amend pleadings dismissed. The court held that amendments sought eight years after filing the main suit, introducing new causes of action for recovery of money and illegality not raised in the original plaint, would constitute an abuse of process. The proposed amendments arose from a reconciliation conducted seven years after suit was filed, information the applicant had or could have obtained with due diligence from the start. The inordinate delay in prosecuting the suit and the fundamental restructuring of the plaintiff's case warranted refusal of the application.

Outcome

Application for leave to amend pleadings dismissed with costs to the respondent

Facts

The applicant filed Civil Suit No. 381 of 2016 against the respondent (a fuel supplier) contesting sums allegedly owed, mismanagement of his account, and challenging a mortgage on his property. The original plaint sought declarations that sums demanded were exaggerated, an independent forensic audit, and cancellation of the mortgage. In 2021, eight years after filing suit, the applicant conducted a reconciliation of accounts and sought to amend his plaint to introduce claims for recovery of UGX 1,188,599,564 allegedly illegally debited, breach of supply contract, illegality and fraud in the mortgage registration, and recovery of fuel worth over UGX 1.4 billion allegedly never supplied. The respondent opposed, arguing the amendments introduced new and inconsistent causes of action, were based on information the applicant always had, were barred by limitation, and would further delay a suit that had not been prosecuted for eight years.

Issues

  1. Whether the Applicant should be granted leave to amend the plaint in Civil Suit No. 381 of 2016.

Orders

  • Application denied.
  • Costs awarded to the Respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Amendment of Pleadings — Principles for Grant of Leave
Amendments to pleadings sought before hearing should be freely allowed if they can be made without injustice to the other side, and there is no injustice if the other side can be compensated by costs. However, the court has no power to enable one distinct cause of action to be substituted for another, nor to change by means of amendment the subject matter of the suit.
Civil Procedure — Amendment of Pleadings — Limitation and Prejudice
The court will refuse leave to amend where the amendment would prejudice the rights of the opposite party existing at the date of the proposed amendment, for example by depriving the party of a defence of limitation accrued since the issue of the writ. The main principle is that an amendment should not be allowed if it causes injustice to the other side.
Civil Procedure — Amendment of Pleadings — Abuse of Process and Delay
Where a plaintiff seeks to amend pleadings eight years after filing suit to introduce new causes of action for recovery of money based on information the plaintiff had or could have obtained with due diligence from the start, and where the suit has not been prosecuted for years, allowing such amendment would constitute an abuse of process and disrespect of the court's time.

Legislation cited (4)

Cases cited (9)

  • Eastern Bakery v Castelino [1958] 1 EA 461
  • Gaso Transport Services (Bus) Ltd v Obene [1990-1994] 1 EA 88
  • Tildesley v Harper (1878) 10 Ch D 393
  • Clarapede v Commercial Union Association (1883) 32 WR 262
  • Budding v Murdoch (1875) 1 Ch D 42
  • Ma Shwe Mya v Maung Po Hnaung (1921) 48 IA 214
  • Raleigh v Goschen [1898] 1 Ch 73
  • Weldon v Neal (1887) 19 QBD 394
  • Hilton v Sutton Steam Laundry [1946] KB 65

Full judgment

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

Kironde v Kobil (U) Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 828 of 2021) [2022] UGCommC 44 (1 July 2022)
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.