Wakilii

Nambassa (suing as Administrator of the Estate of the Late Fred Lyagoba) v Equity Bank Uganda Limited (Miscellaneous Application 248 of 2022)

High Court · [2022] UGHCCD 325 · 2022 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application for review and setting aside of dismissal order in Civil Suit No. 66 of 2020
Decision
Application dismissed as res judicata

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

An application for review seeking to set aside a dismissal order on the ground that the Court failed to hear a pending application before dismissing the main suit is res judicata where the Court expressly considered the existence of the pending application and ruled on it before making the dismissal order. The applicant's proper remedy was an appeal, not a review application.

Outcome

Application dismissed as res judicata

Facts

The applicant filed an application to review and set aside the dismissal order made on 13 December 2022 in Civil Suit No. 66 of 2020. Civil Suit No. 66 of 2020 was filed on 18 November 2020. Court gave directions for filing trial documents on 21 September 2022, setting deadlines for the Joint Scheduling Memorandum (5 October 2022), plaintiff's trial documents (19 November 2022), and defendant's trial documents (2 November 2022), with the matter adjourned to 13 December 2022. On 13 December 2022, no trial documents had been filed. The respondent moved for dismissal under Order 17 rule 4 for failure to prosecute. Counsel for the applicant submitted that he intended to amend pleadings and raised the existence of Miscellaneous Application No. 266 of 2022 (an application to add parties) which had been fixed for 20 March 2023. The Court dismissed the main suit, finding that the plaintiff had failed to comply with Court directives on two occasions (25 May 2021 and 21 September 2022), that the issue of adding a defendant never arose at those earlier mentions, and that the plaintiff was using Miscellaneous Application No. 266 to abuse Court process. The applicant then filed the present application contending that the Court's failure to hear Miscellaneous Application No. 266 before dismissing the main suit amounted to an error on the face of the record. The respondent objected on the ground that the application was res judicata.

Issues

  1. Whether Miscellaneous Application No. 248 of 2022 is a suit within the meaning of the Civil Procedure Act.
  2. Whether Miscellaneous Application No. 248 of 2022 is res judicata.

Orders

  • Miscellaneous Application No. 248 of 2022 dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Definition of Suit — Miscellaneous Applications
A miscellaneous application commenced by way of Notice of Motion under Order 52 rules 1, 2 and 3 of the Civil Procedure Rules is a suit within the meaning of section 2(x) of the Civil Procedure Act, which defines a suit as all civil proceedings commenced in any manner prescribed.
Civil Procedure — Res Judicata — Test for Application
In determining whether a suit is res judicata, the Court must peruse the judgment of the Court in the first suit and ascertain that the judgment exhaustively dealt with the issues raised, and if possible, peruse the whole Court record to appraise itself of all matters raised in the earlier suit in order to decide whether the plea of res judicata succeeds.
Civil Procedure — Review — Error Apparent on the Face of Record
Where a Court expressly considers a pending miscellaneous application and rules on it after hearing submissions from both parties before making a dismissal order, the subsequent claim that the Court failed to consider the application does not constitute an error apparent on the face of the record justifying review under section 82 of the Civil Procedure Act.
Civil Procedure — Res Judicata — Application for Review on Same Grounds
An application for review that is based on grounds that were determined in the dismissal of the main suit is res judicata and must be dismissed. The proper remedy upon dismissal of a suit is an appeal, not a review application raising the same grounds.

Legislation cited (5)

Cases cited (9)

  • Sam Akankwasa v URA (Miscellaneous Application No. 40 of 2019)
  • Farm Inputs Care Centre Ltd v Klein Karoo Seeds Marketing (PTY) Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 0861 of 2021)
  • Balaba Robinah v Hussein Mohammed (Civil Suit No. 109 of 2017)
  • Kotokyo Wilber William v John K. Kaggwa & Anor (Miscellaneous Application No. 278 of 2019)
  • Kamunye & Ors v The Pioneer General Assurance Society Limited [1971] 1 EA 263
  • The Registered Trustees of Madi West Nile Diocese v Lucia Eyotaru & 7 Ors (Miscellaneous Application No. 0043 of 2019)
  • Maniraguha Vs Nkundiye CACA No. 23 of 2005
  • Ponsiano Semakula Vs Sasare Magala & Others, 1993, KALR 213
  • Sam Akankwasa v United Bank of Africa (U) Ltd (Miscellaneous Application No. 40 of 2019)

Full judgment

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

Nambassa (suing as Administrator of the Estate of the Late Fred Lyagoba) v Equity Bank Uganda Limited (Miscellaneous Application 248 of 2022) [2022] UGHCCD 325 (14 June 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.