National Union of Clerical Empolyees v Coffee Marketing Board (Civil Appeal No. 60 of 2014)

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 Court of Appeal held that neither the remitted Industrial Court proceedings nor the subsequent judicial review before the High Court were barred by res judicata. Because Justice Ntabgoba's earlier ruling had quashed the original Industrial Court award and rendered it a nullity, the matter had to start afresh, so no earlier decision survived to found a plea of res judicata or estoppel by record. The trial Judge wrongly drifted into the merits and treated judicial review as an appeal. The proper remedy against the fresh Industrial Court award was appeal, not judicial review. The appeal was allowed and the Industrial Court award of 3 December 2004 reinstated, with costs to the appellant.

Outcome

Appeal allowed; High Court orders of certiorari and prohibition set aside and the Industrial Court award of 3 December 2004 reinstated

Facts

A dispute concerned the retrenchment package payable to workers of the Coffee Marketing Board Ltd (in Liquidation). The Industrial Court's award was challenged by judicial review before Justice Ntabgoba in Misc. Appl. No. 066 of 1996, who quashed the award for misinterpreting clauses 18, 19 and 24(d) of the Union Agreement and remitted the case to the Industrial Court to follow the correct basis for the package. On remittal, in a fresh award dated 3 December 2004, the Industrial Court applied clause 18 and related clauses, directed involvement of the Auditor General, and a figure of UGX 1,344,178,537 was verified as payable. The Board then filed a further judicial review (Misc. Cause No. 74 of 2006) before Justice Kabiito, who quashed the fresh award and issued prohibition on the ground of res judicata and manifest error, but without remitting it. The union appealed.

Issues

1. Whether the matter before the trial Judge by way of judicial review was res judicata.
2. Whether the remitted proceedings before the Industrial Court were res judicata.
3. Whether the trial Judge was right to grant certiorari and prohibition without remitting the case back to the Industrial Court.
4. Whether the trial Judge was right to overrule the preliminary objection that any misinterpretation of the High Court ruling in Misc. Appl. No. 066 of 1996 should have been dealt with by way of appeal rather than a fresh judicial review.
5. Whether the trial Judge correctly interpreted the phrase 'to apply other clauses'.

Orders

• Appeal allowed.
• The Award in Industrial Court Trade Dispute No. 01 of 1992 Part III dated 3 December 2004 reinstated.
• Costs of the appeal awarded to the appellant.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (3)

• Civil Procedure Act s.7
• Evidence Act s.114
• Judicature (Court of Appeal Rules) Directions SI 13-10 rule 30(1)(a)

Cases cited (8)

• Pandya vs. R [1957] EA 336
• Kifamunte Henry v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No. 10 of 1997)
• Kamunye V Pioneer Assurance Ltd [1977] EA 263
• Ponsiano Semakula V Susane Magala & others 1993 KALR
• Maniraguha Gashumba v Sam Nkundiye (Civil Appeal No. 23 of 2005)
• NEW BRUNSWICK RAILWAY COMPANY v BRITISH AND FRENCH TRUST CORPORATION LIMITED 5 LDAB 166
• Commissioner of Land v Kunste Hotel Ltd [1995-1998] 1 EA (CAK)
• Comtel Integrators Africa Limited v National Social Security Fund (Miscellaneous Application No. 15 of 2009)

Cases citing this judgment (2)

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.

• Coffee Marketing Board Limited v National Union of Clerical Commercial Professional & Technical Employees (Civil Application 45 of 2020)
• Vision Impex Limited v Singh Ghatore (CIVIL APPEAL NO. 155 OF 2016)

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