Ssajjabi v Namutebi & Another (Civil Appeal 5 of 2020)

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

On a second appeal the Supreme Court reaffirmed that it cannot question the trial court's findings of fact where there is evidence to support them, interfering only where there is no such evidence. The Court found that the Court of Appeal had properly re-evaluated the evidence and that minor typographical errors in exhibit references were not fatal. The concurrent findings that the appellant fraudulently procured the donation and registration of the suit land to himself, contrary to his late father's intention to donate it to the church, were upheld. A valid gift inter vivos requires intention to irrevocably surrender control, which was absent; title obtained by fraud cannot be protected merely because the holder is registered. The appeal was dismissed with costs.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed; concurrent findings of the lower courts upholding cancellation of the appellant's title and registration of the land in the 2nd respondent's name affirmed

Facts

The late Muyizzi Samuel was the registered proprietor of leasehold land at Kyazanga, Lwengo District, measuring 120 acres. In 1996 he donated the land to Bikaali Christian Fellowship and entrusted the appellant, his son and then the church's pastor, to hold and develop it for the church. When the appellant ceased to be pastor in 1999, the late Muyizzi transferred that responsibility to another pastor. In 2006 the appellant introduced foreign sponsors who required proof the land belonged to the church, and the late Muyizzi instructed the appellant to have advocates draft a formal deed of donation to the church. Instead, the appellant instructed the advocates to draft a deed of gift dated 15 May 2006 in his own favour, induced his father to sign it together with blank transfer forms without reading them, and registered himself as proprietor. The late Muyizzi and the church sued, seeking a declaration that the deed was invalid and cancellation of the appellant's title.

Issues

1. Whether the Justices of the Court of Appeal failed to properly re-evaluate the evidence on record, thereby occasioning a miscarriage of justice.
2. Whether the Court of Appeal erred in upholding the cancellation of the appellant's name from the leasehold title, given his claim that the suit land was a gift inter vivos from his late father.

Orders

• Appeal dismissed.
• Costs of the appeal awarded to the respondents.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (2)

• Court of Appeal Rules r.30
• Rules of the Supreme Court r.98

Cases cited (1)

• Kifamunte Henry v Uganda (Criminal Appeal No. 10 of 1997)

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.

• Ouchoro v Fast Track Financial Services Limited (Miscellaneous Cause 27 of 2022)

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