Nyanzi & 2 Ors v Mukasa (Civil Appeal Number 55 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 the first appellant did not commit trespass because he entered the respondent's land with permission granted by the respondent's wife after telephone consultation with the respondent, and therefore had a licence justifying his entry. Causing a survey and demarcation of purchased land is not unlawful, and no power of attorney is legally required to instruct surveyors. The second and third appellants never entered the land and could not be liable. On the title ground, being a second appeal, the Court declined to disturb the concurrent findings, noting that possession, not passing of title, was the material question. The decisions below were quashed and judgment entered for the appellants with costs.

Outcome

Appeal allowed; findings of trespass quashed and judgment entered for the appellants with costs

Facts

The respondent purchased two pieces of land at Ntinda Kulambiro, Kampala from the father of the first appellant, buying the first in 1988 (on which he built a house) and the second in 1999, completing payment in 2004. By 2001 he had fenced both pieces. On 7 April 2007, the first appellant, accompanied by surveyors, attended the respondent's home to survey and demarcate the land, purportedly on written instructions from his father who was ill. The respondent's wife telephoned the respondent, who authorised entry, and instructed a worker to open the gate. The first appellant entered and used the respondent's wife's phone throughout the survey. The second and third appellants remained outside the gate and did not enter. A dispute arose concerning an access road allegedly interfered with by the respondent's fence. The respondent sued for trespass; the Chief Magistrate found the appellants liable and awarded UGX 6,000,000, and the High Court dismissed the first appeal.

Issues

1. Whether the demarcation of the respondent's land by surveyors amounted to trespass.
2. Whether the appellants unlawfully entered upon the respondent's land.
3. Whether title to the land had passed to the respondent.
4. Whether the first appellate Judge properly re-evaluated the evidence on record.

Orders

• Grounds 1, 2 and 4 succeed.
• The decision of the Chief Magistrate and of the first appellate court quashed.
• Judgment entered for the appellants.
• Costs awarded to the appellants in both lower courts and in this Court.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (3)

• Registration of Titles Act, Cap 230 s.92(1)
• Registration of Titles Act, Cap 230 s.92(2)
• Judicature (Court of Appeal) Rules, SI 13-10 r.32(2)

Cases cited (7)

• Uganda Breweries Ltd v Uganda Railways Corporation [2002] 2 EA 634 (SCU)
• Labanito Okwajja v Okello (Civil Appeal No. 120 of 1978)
• Kifamunte Henry v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No. 10 of 2007)
• Pandya v R [1957] EA 336
• R V Hassan bin Said (1942) 9 EACA 62
• Justine E.M. Lutaya v Stirling Civil Engineering Company Ltd (Civil Appeal No. 11 of 2002)
• Sheikh Muhamad Lubowa v Kitara Enterprises (Civil Appeal No. 4 of 1987)

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.

• Moro v Green hill Secondary School Lira (Labour Dispute Reference 10 of 2021)
• Sekisambu Edward v Mukasa Silver (Civil Appeal No. 28 of 2016)
• Nyakana & Sons Ltd v Kobusingye & 16 Ors [2017] UGSC 25

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