Wakilii

Wodero v Lunco Contractors Ltd (Hct-04-cv-cs-0082 2001)

High Court · [2002] UGHC 100 · 2002 Judgment for Plaintiff AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance civil suit for breach of contract; proceeded ex parte after interlocutory judgment entered under Order 9 Rule 4 CPR
Decision
Judgment entered in favour of the plaintiff with damages, interest, and costs

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

Held that a valid contract existed between the parties for the sale of murram at 2000 shillings per trip. The defendant breached the contract by excavating murram, removing some, abandoning the rest, and failing to pay. General damages of 2,000,000 shillings awarded for breach and land damage. Specific performance refused for lack of evidence on how it should be performed.

Outcome

Judgment entered in favour of the plaintiff with damages, interest, and costs

Facts

The plaintiff entered into a written agreement with the defendant for the sale of murram from his land at 2,000 shillings per tipper lorry trip. The defendant excavated murram from approximately two acres of land used for growing matooke, coffee, maize, groundnuts, and cassava, and constructed a 250-metre road. The defendant removed some trips of murram but abandoned a heap of excavated murram on site and failed to pay the plaintiff anything. The excavation left a ditch rendering the land useless for agriculture. The plaintiff made repeated demands for payment but received none. The case proceeded ex parte after interlocutory judgment was entered under Order 9 Rule 4 CPR on 6 November 2001.

Issues

  1. Whether there was breach of contract
  2. Whether the plaintiff was entitled to the remedies prayed for

Orders

  • Judgment entered in favour of the plaintiff
  • General damages of Shs 2,000,000/= awarded to the plaintiff for breach of contract
  • Interest at 8% per annum from date of judgment until full realization
  • Costs of the suit awarded to the plaintiff to be borne by the defendant
  • Specific performance refused

Rules and key headnotes

Contract Law — Breach of Contract — Measure of General Damages
The general rule for the measure of damages in contract is that the sum awarded should put the injured party in the same position as if the contract had not been broken.
Damages & Quantum — Special Damages — Proof Required
Special damages must be specifically pleaded and strictly proved by documentary or other evidence. Mere estimates and speculations without supporting evidence are insufficient to establish special damages.
Contract Law — Specific Performance — Requirement for Evidence
A court cannot order specific performance of a contract where no evidence has been led to show how the specific performance should be performed.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Civil Procedure Rules O.9 r.4

Cases cited (2)

  • Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co (1880) 5 App Cas 25
  • Makumbi v Kigezi African Bus Co., Ltd (1986) 69

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Wodero v Lunco Contractors Ltd (Hct-04-cv-cs-0082_2001) [2002] UGHC 100 (5 September 2002)
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.