Valvo v Commissioner Land Registration (Miscellaneous Cause No. 93 of 2010)

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 held that where a leasehold encumbrance registered on a mailo certificate of title is removed and marked as 'surrendered' without the leaseholder's knowledge, consent, or any supporting instrument, and without lawful justification, the Commissioner Land Registration is obliged under section 91(2)(c) of the Land Act to correct the erroneous entry. The application for rectification was granted.

Outcome

Application allowed; respondent to rectify the land register and restore applicant's leasehold encumbrance

Facts

The applicant is the surviving registered proprietor of a 49-year lease comprised in Leasehold Register Volume 1517 Folio 17, situated on mailo land comprised in Kibuga Block 28 Plot 760 at Makerere. The applicant's late father leased the land from the original mailo owner on 21 November 1986. The lease was registered in the names of the applicant and her father, and an encumbrance was registered on the mailo certificate of title. A recent land office search revealed that the leasehold encumbrance on the mailo title had been fraudulently cancelled and marked as 'surrendered' without the applicant's knowledge or consent, despite the lease still being subsisting. No instrument number appeared on the encumbrance page to support the alleged surrender. The applicant made numerous requests to the respondent to correct the anomaly, but the respondent refused. The respondent did not file a reply or attend the hearing despite being served.

Issues

1. Whether the respondent should be compelled to rectify the mailo land register by restoring the applicant's leasehold encumbrance which was fraudulently cancelled and marked as 'surrendered'.
2. Whether the respondent acted in error by endorsing 'surrendered' on the encumbrance page of the mailo certificate of title without an instrument number or lawful justification.

Orders

• Application allowed.
• The respondent is to rectify the mailo land office register for the land comprised in Kibuga Block 28 Plot 760 at Makerere to restore the applicant's leasehold interest, being Leasehold Register Volume 1517 Folio 17.
• The respondent is to correct the anomaly by entering the applicant's leasehold interest on the mailo land register.
• No order as to costs.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (4)

• Land Act Cap 227 s.91(2)
• Land Act Cap 227 s.91(2)(c)
• Registration of Titles Act Cap 230 s.182
• Civil Procedure Rules Order 52 rule 1

Cases cited (1)

• Samwiri Massa v Rose Achen [1978] HCB 297

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