Rock Trust Contractors (U) v Kibale District Local Council (HCT-00-CC-MA 433 of 2007)

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.

Holding

The High Court dismissed the application to revise an arbitration award. The applicant sought to include payment certificates the arbitrator deliberately excluded. The correct procedure was to request an additional award from the arbitral tribunal within thirty days under section 33(4) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The applicant failed to follow this statutory procedure and instead attempted to revise the award through the High Court after the limitation period expired.

Outcome

Application dismissed with costs for failure to follow correct statutory procedure and expiry of limitation period

Facts

Rock Trust Contractors (U) Ltd obtained an arbitration award in October 2003 from the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers requiring Kibale District Local Council to pay Certificate No. 3 for Shs 31,638,377. The arbitrator declined to adjudicate on Certificates 1 and 2, stating those matters should be resolved by the company's management. The applicant received the award before 20 February 2006 when it convened a meeting and resolved to seek registration of all three certificates. The applicant did not request an additional award from the arbitral tribunal within thirty days as required by section 33(4) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. Instead, the applicant filed this application in 2007 seeking the High Court to revise the award to include Certificates 1 and 2.

Issues

1. Whether the High Court has jurisdiction to revise an arbitration award to include claims the arbitrator declined to adjudicate.
2. Whether the applicant followed the correct statutory procedure under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act to seek an additional award.
3. Whether the thirty-day limitation period under section 33(4) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act had expired.

Orders

• Application dismissed.
• Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (7)

• Constitution Article 139(1)
• Judicature Act s.39(2)
• Civil Procedure Act s.98
• Civil Procedure Act s.83
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 52
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.33(4)
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act s.33(5)

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