Wakilii

Lwakataka v Lubega & 3 Ors (Civil Suit No. 214 of 2009)

High Court · [2014] UGHCCD 62 · 2014 Preliminary Objection Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Ruling on preliminary objection to defamation suit
Decision
Preliminary objection dismissed; matter to proceed to trial on merits

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The court dismissed the preliminary objection that the suit be struck out for lack of an English translation of the allegedly defamatory Luganda article. Where the plaintiff amended the plaint to include an English translation before the hearing and served it on the defendants, the objection became misconceived.

Outcome

Preliminary objection dismissed; matter to proceed to trial on merits

Facts

The plaintiff brought a defamation suit against four defendants arising from an article published in the Bukedde newspaper on 22 August 2009. The plaintiff pleaded the allegedly defamatory article verbatim in Luganda in paragraph 7 of the original plaint. The defendants raised a preliminary objection that the suit disclosed no cause of action because the article was not translated into English, contrary to the Constitution and the Civil Procedure Act which make English the language of all courts. Before the hearing on the preliminary objection, the plaintiff's counsel applied to amend the plaint to include an English translation of the defamatory words. The court granted leave to amend on 6 November 2012. An amended plaint containing the English translation was filed on 8 November 2012 and served on the defendants. When the matter came up for hearing on 4 December 2012, defendants' counsel acknowledged receiving the amended plaint but objected to the mode of service.

Issues

  1. Whether the plaint should be dismissed for not disclosing a cause of action due to failure to include an English translation of the allegedly defamatory words published in Luganda.

Orders

  • Preliminary objection dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the plaintiff.

Rules and key headnotes

Preliminary Objections — Amendment of Pleadings
Where a party amends a plaint to cure a defect before the hearing of a preliminary objection to that defect, the preliminary objection becomes misconceived and must be dismissed.
Pleadings — Language Requirements — Defamation
In a defamation suit based on publication in a vernacular language, an English translation of the allegedly defamatory words must be included in the plaint to comply with the requirement that the language of all courts is English under the Civil Procedure Act section 88.
Amendment of Pleadings — Effect of Amendment
An amendment overtakes the original previous pleadings, such that objections directed at defects in the original pleading become misconceived once the amendment cures those defects.

Legislation cited (3)

Cases cited (3)

  • Nkalubo v Kibirige [1973] EA 102
  • De Souza v Senith Printing Works (Kenya Criminal Case No. 149 of 1959)
  • Kakwateki v The Editor, Orumuri Newspaper & Anor (High Court Civil Suit No. 461 of 2004)

Full judgment

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

Lwakataka v Lubega & 3 Ors (Civil Suit No. 214 of 2009) [2014] UGHCCD 62 (29 April 2014)
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.