Wakilii

Najjembe and Another v Attorney General (Miscellaneous Application No. 1858 of 2022)

High Court · [2023] UGHCLD 96 · 2023 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for leave to substitute and add plaintiffs in ongoing civil suit arising from compulsory land acquisition
Decision
Application dismissed; applicants cannot substitute or add plaintiffs who have not themselves applied to be joined

Observed later treatment

Cited — treatment unverified cited in 3 (treatment unverified) Sequitur — Uganda’s citator · Derived from citing cases in the Wakilii corpus — not an assertion that this case is good law.

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.

No adverse treatment recorded Cited 3 times with no adverse treatment recorded; not yet tested on the merits. Derived from citing cases in the Wakilii corpus — a deterministic signal, not legal advice.

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

The court dismissed the application for leave to substitute and add plaintiffs. The applicants, having transferred their interest in the suit land, sought to substitute themselves with new registered proprietors and add an administrator as plaintiffs. The court held that the intended plaintiffs, not being parties to the application and having not formally expressed interest in joining the suit, could not be compelled to take over prosecution of the head suit. The plaintiff is dominus litis and determines whom to sue; the court cannot bind parties who have not participated in proceedings or expressed interest in being joined.

Outcome

Application dismissed; applicants cannot substitute or add plaintiffs who have not themselves applied to be joined

Facts

The applicants were registered proprietors of land measuring 164.70 hectares which the Government of Uganda compulsorily acquired in 1972 without compensation. The applicants became registered proprietors on 30 October 2014 and instituted Civil Suit No. 477 of 2015 for compensation. On 19 December 2019, the court entered judgment on admission in favour of the applicants for UGX 1,570,963,242. On 28 October 2021, the applicants transferred their complete interest in the suit land to four family members of the late original proprietor, who became registered as new proprietors. The applicants then brought this application seeking leave to substitute themselves with the new proprietors and to add the administrator of the estate of the late original proprietor as plaintiffs. The court had previously directed on 25 October 2022 that the intending plaintiffs should file a formal application for addition as parties, but the current applicants brought the application instead.

Issues

  1. Whether the applicants, who had transferred their interest in the suit land to third parties, had standing to bring an application to substitute and add plaintiffs in the head suit.
  2. Whether the intended plaintiffs, who did not themselves bring the application, could be joined as parties without formally expressing interest to be so joined.
  3. Whether the proposed amendment would introduce a new cause of action prejudicial to the respondent after judgment on admission had been entered.

Orders

  • Application dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the Respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Joinder of Parties — Necessary Parties — Requirement for Formal Application by Intending Party
An intending plaintiff who seeks to be joined as a party to ongoing proceedings must bring a formal application in their own name expressing interest in joining the suit. The court cannot compel a person to become a plaintiff in a suit they have not formally sought to join, as the plaintiff is dominus litis and determines whom to sue and not to sue.
Civil Procedure — Joinder of Parties — Standing — Application by Non-Parties on Behalf of Intending Plaintiffs
Where current applicants who have divested their interest in the subject matter seek to bring an application to substitute themselves with new parties, they assume dominus litis on behalf of the intended plaintiffs without clear instructions. The court cannot ascertain that the purported intending plaintiffs have interest in pursuing the suit or wish to maintain the claim without a formal application and supporting affidavit from the intending plaintiffs themselves.
Civil Procedure — Joinder of Parties — Effect of Joinder — Protection Against Binding Non-Participating Parties
The court will not make orders for or against parties who have not formally expressed interest to be bound by such orders nor participated in the proceedings before court. To do so would risk condemning parties to costs in a case they did not express interest to join, contrary to the principle that a plaintiff cannot be compelled to sue a person whom he does not wish to sue.

Legislation cited (11)

Cases cited (5)

  • Departed Asians Property Custodian Board v Jaffer Brothers Ltd (Civil Appeal No. 8 of 1998)
  • Gokaldas Laximidas Tanna v Store Rose Muyinza (HCCS No. 7076 of 1987)
  • Kingori vs. Chege and others [2002] 2 KLR 243
  • Kamau vs. Makomboki Tea Factory Ltd [2008] 1 EA 154
  • Santana Fernandes vs. Kaala Arjan & Sons & 2 Ors [1961] EA 693

Cases citing this judgment (3)

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.

Full judgment

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

Najjembe_and_Another_v_Attorney_General_(Miscellaneous_Application_No._1858_of_2022)_[2023]_UGHCLD_96_(9_February_2023)
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.