Roughton International Ltd and Others v Uganda Investment Authority and Another (Miscellaneous Cause No. 87 of 2022)

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

Held that interim measures of protection under section 6 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act cannot be granted where the contract has already been terminated before the arbitration proceedings commenced, as there is no status quo to preserve. The application for a temporary injunction to restrain the 1st Respondent from terminating the consultancy services agreement and to restrain both Respondents from taking further actions was dismissed as untenable, premature, and inconsequential.

Outcome

Application for interim measures dismissed; parties directed to arbitral proceedings

Facts

The Applicants, a consortium of consultancy firms including two international firms and two local firms, entered into a consultancy services agreement with the 1st Respondent to supervise infrastructure development at Kampala Industrial and Business Park, Namanve. After providing services for almost three years, the Applicants claimed the 1st Respondent owed them Euros 1,788,933.32. On 29th August 2022, the 1st Respondent issued a 60-day termination notice under the contract. The 2nd Respondent recommended suspension of the Applicants from public procurement following a contract audit that identified failures to perform contractual obligations and misrepresentation of material facts. On 17th November 2022, after the termination notice period had lapsed, the Applicants referred the dispute to arbitration and filed this application seeking interim measures to restrain termination, suspension, and further procurement processes.

Issues

1. Whether the Applicants have raised grounds that merit the grant of an interim measure of protection pending the conclusion of the arbitral proceedings?
2. What remedies are available?

Orders

• Application dismissed.
• Costs to abide the outcome of the arbitral proceedings.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (7)

• Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 Article 126(1)
• Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 Article 139
• Arbitration and Conciliation Act Cap 4 s.6
• Civil Procedure Act Cap 71 s.98
• Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act 2003 s.94
• Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act 2003 s.7(j)(ii)
• Civil Procedure Rules SI 71-1 Order 15 Rule 3

Cases cited (5)

• E.L.T Kiyimba Kaggwa v Haji Abdu Nasser Katende (High Court 1985)
• American Cyanamid v Ethicon [1975] 1 All ER 504
• John Sekaziga and Another v Church Commissioners Holding Company Ltd (Miscellaneous Cause No. 15 of 2013)
• Sunstone Limited v Nakamya Robinah and Another (Miscellaneous Application No. 1674 of 2017)
• Rem Publishers and Another v Uganda National Bureau of Standards (Miscellaneous Cause No. 171 of 2019)

Cases citing this judgment (1)

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.

• Roughton International Ltd and Others v Uganda Investment Authority and Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (Civil Application No. 15 of 2023)

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