Mukwano Enterprises Limited v Seninde Miriam and Kibalama Liz T A Lise General Merchandise and Supplies (Miscellaneous Application No. 1856 of 2024)

Observed later treatment

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

The High Court Commercial Division held that an amended plaint filed outside the 14-day period prescribed by Order 6 rule 25 of the Civil Procedure Rules without prior leave of Court must be struck off. The Court found that the respondents' counsel had been properly notified via ECCMIS of the ruling date and that notification to counsel registered on the system constituted effective service. The amended plaint filed six days late was struck off the record.

Outcome

Amended plaint struck off the record for being filed out of time without leave of Court

Facts

The applicant brought an application to strike off the respondents' amended plaint filed on 6 September 2024 arising from Civil Suit No. 277 of 2019. On 19 August 2024, the Court had delivered a ruling in Miscellaneous Application No. 662 of 2023 granting the respondents leave to amend their plaint. No time limit was specified in that ruling, thus the respondents had 14 days from 19 August 2024 (expiring on 2 September 2024) to file the amended plaint per Order 6 rule 25. The respondents filed the amended plaint on 6 September 2024, four days after the deadline expired. The respondents contended they were unaware of the change in ruling date from 10 September to 19 August 2024 because they were not notified on their firm's ECCMIS registered email address. The applicant countered that notice was sent on 15 August 2024 via ECCMIS to the email address of Counsel Michael Mayambala who was the registered user party representing the respondents and had conducted the case. The Court examined the ECCMIS records and found that on 9 November 2022, the respondents had registered Michael Mayambala as a related user party with the email [email protected]. The ruling session notice was sent to that address on 15 August 2024.

Issues

1. Whether the amended plaint vide Civil Suit No. 277 of 2019 was filed out of time, and if so whether it should be struck off the record?
2. What remedies are available to the parties?

Orders

• The Respondents' amended plaint filed in Court on 6th September, 2024, is struck off the record.
• Costs of this application shall be in the cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (5)

• Civil Procedure Rules Order 6 rule 25
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 6 rule 28
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 15 rule 5(1)
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 52 rule 1
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 52 rule 3

Cases cited (9)

• Oriental Insurance Brokers Ltd v Transocean (U) Limited (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 55 of 1995)
• Uganda Telecom Ltd v ZTE Corporation (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 3 of 2017)
• Mukisa Biscuit Manufacturing Co. Ltd v West End Distributors Limited [1969] EA 696
• Hon. Sitenda Sebalu Vs Secretary General of the East African Community Ref. No. 8 of 2012
• UNEB Vs Mparo General Contractors, COS CR No. 99 of 2003
• UTEX Industries v Attorney General (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 52 of 1995)
• B.E.A. Timer Co. v Inder Singh Gill [1959] EA 463
• Makula International Ltd v Cardinal Nsubuga & Anor [1982] HCB 11
• Geoffrey Gatete & Another v William Kyobe (Supreme Court Civil Appeal No. 7 of 2005)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Seninde Miriam and Liz Kibalama t a Lise General Merchandise and Supplies v Mukwano Enterprises Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 1423 of 2025)

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