Wakilii

Messrs Ayigihugu & Co. Advocates v Muteteri (Civil Suit 871 of 1989)

High Court · [1990] UGHC 38 · 1990 Plaintiff Struck Out AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance civil suit to recover property instituted by attorneys under power of attorney
Decision
Suit dismissed for being instituted in the name of the wrong 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

Held that an attorney acting under a power of attorney must institute proceedings in the name of the principal, not in the attorney's own name. The attorney has no independent cause of action. Where the power of attorney expressly required the attorneys to act in the name and on behalf of the donor, the suit was wrongly instituted in the name of the law firm as plaintiff. The court declined to substitute or amend the plaintiff at the late stage of the proceedings, as doing so would involve unnecessarily descending into the arena. The plaintiff was struck out and costs were awarded against the plaintiff.

Outcome

Suit dismissed for being instituted in the name of the wrong plaintiff

Facts

The plaintiff, a law firm, held a special power of attorney dated 18 September 1989 from Alexander Munyankindi, a resident of Kigali, Rwanda. The power authorised the firm to recover property in Uganda and expressly stated that the attorneys were to act 'in my name and on my behalf'. The plaintiff instituted a civil suit to recover property from the defendant in its own name as plaintiff rather than in the name of the donor. The defendant did not appear at the hearing. While preparing judgment, the court realised the suit had been instituted in the name of the wrong plaintiff.

Issues

  1. Whether a suit instituted by a donee of a power of attorney acting in their own name rather than in the name of the donor is properly constituted.
  2. Whether the court should permit substitution or amendment to correct the wrong plaintiff.

Orders

  • Plaintiff struck out.
  • Costs occasioned to be paid by the plaintiff.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Agency — Power of Attorney — Proper Party Plaintiff
An agent acting under a power of attorney must as a general rule act in the name of the principal. If the agent is authorised to sue on the principal's behalf, the action should be brought in the principal's name, not in the agent's name.
Civil Procedure — Locus Standi — Attorney Under Power of Attorney
An attorney acting under a power of attorney has no independent cause of action against a defendant. A judgment deciding the rights of parties cannot be based on a plaintiff who shows no cause of action.
Civil Procedure — Amendment and Substitution — Court Declining to Exercise Discretion
Where proceedings have been instituted in the wrong plaintiff's name and the matter has proceeded to an advanced stage, the court may decline to substitute or permit amendment even where the Civil Procedure Rules confer such power, particularly where exercising the power would cause the court to descend into the arena of the case.

Legislation cited (6)

  • Civil Procedure Act s.103
  • Civil Procedure Rules O.1 r.10(1)
  • Civil Procedure Rules O.1 r.10(2)
  • Civil Procedure Rules O.1 r.10(3)
  • Civil Procedure Rules O.6 r.18
  • Civil Procedure Rules O.18 r.2(3)

Cases cited (2)

  • Jones and Saldhana v Gurney [1913] WN 72
  • Govindhi Mathuradas v V.M. Patel (Civil Suit No. 94 of 1964)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Messrs Ayigihugu & Co. Advocates v Muteteri (Civil Suit 871 of 1989) [1990] UGHC 38 (30 August 1990)
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.