Wakilii

Oseku v Kabyanga (Civil Suit 1152 of 1986)

High Court · [1992] UGHC 60 · 1992 Application Granted AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application by defendant for leave to amend written statement of defence in ongoing civil suit for recovery of unpaid rent
Decision
Leave to amend granted; matter to proceed to trial on amended pleadings

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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.

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 High Court granted leave to the defendant to amend the written statement of defence. Applying the principle from Eastern Bakery v Castellino, amendments before hearing should be freely allowed if they can be made without injustice to the other side. The court held that no injustice would be caused to the plaintiff by allowing the amendment, as the plaintiff could be compensated by costs. The defendant was given 14 days to file the amended statement of defence, with costs in the cause.

Outcome

Leave to amend granted; matter to proceed to trial on amended pleadings

Facts

This was a civil suit concerning recovery of unpaid rent and damages for bad state of repair of the plaintiff's house in which the defendant resided as a tenant. The defendant applied for leave to amend his written statement of defence to include matters concerning 40 empty crates of soft drinks which the plaintiff had allegedly confiscated in distress for rent. The plaintiff opposed the amendment, arguing that the crates were deposited with a company (Nyakoi Enterprises Ltd) of which the plaintiff was a shareholder, and that the issue was unrelated to the tenancy dispute. The defendant maintained he had dealt directly with the plaintiff and that the former defence counsel had negligently omitted the state of disrepair issue. The application was fixed by consent but heard exparte as the plaintiff's counsel did not appear.

Issues

  1. Whether leave should be granted to amend the written statement of defence to include matters concerning the confiscation of empty crates of soft drinks and alleged state of disrepair of the premises.

Orders

  • Leave granted to the applicant/defendant to amend the written statement of defence as applied for.
  • The applicant/defendant is given 14 days within which to file his amended statement of defence.
  • Costs of this application to be in the cause.

Rules and key headnotes

Amendment of Pleadings — Before Hearing — Test for Grant of Leave
Amendments to pleadings sought before the hearing should be freely allowed if they can be made without injustice to the other side, and there is no injustice if the other side can be compensated by costs.

Legislation cited (3)

Cases cited (2)

  • Joseph Nsereko v Haji Taibu Lubega & Another (1982) HCB 51
  • Eastern Bakery v Castellino [1958] EA 461

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Oseku v Kabyanga (Civil Suit 1152 of 1986) [1992] UGHC 60 (2 April 1992)
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.