Wakilii

Yusuf v Kioko (Civil Case No. 1072 of 1951)

East African Court of Appeal · [1951] EACA 332 · 1951 Suit Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
First instance civil suit called for hearing with defendant appearing but plaintiff absent
Decision
Suit dismissed for plaintiff's non-appearance at hearing

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

Where a plaintiff fails to appear either in person or through a recognized agent when a suit is called for hearing, Order 9, rule 19 of the Civil Procedure Rules is mandatory and requires dismissal of the suit. The Court has no discretion under section 97 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance to grant an adjournment in the face of clear breach of Order 9, rule 19.

Outcome

Suit dismissed for plaintiff's non-appearance at hearing

Facts

The plaintiff filed a hearing notice for 13 December 1951. The defendant requested witness summonses which were issued on 1 December 1951. On 3 December 1951, the plaintiff telegraphed the Court stating he was in hospital and asked to stop the case. The Deputy Registrar wrote to the Medical Officer requesting a medical certificate if the plaintiff was too ill. A medical certificate was sent on 6 December but named Philip Kioko Sherief, which was not the plaintiff's name. When the suit was called for hearing on 13 December 1951, the defendant appeared represented by an advocate but the plaintiff did not appear either in person or through a recognized agent.

Issues

  1. Whether the Court could grant an adjournment under section 97 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance where the plaintiff failed to appear at hearing in breach of Order 9, rule 19 of the Civil Procedure Rules.

Orders

  • Suit dismissed.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Non-appearance at hearing — Mandatory dismissal under Order 9, rule 19
Order 9, rule 19 of the Civil Procedure Rules is mandatory and requires the Court to dismiss a suit where the plaintiff fails to appear either in person or through a recognized agent when the suit is called for hearing.
Civil Procedure — Adjournment — Limits of Court's discretion under section 97
The Court cannot invoke section 97 of the Civil Procedure Ordinance to grant an adjournment where a party is in clear breach of Order 9, rule 19, as the Court is not entitled to say that a party has not acted in breach of a mandatory procedural rule.

Legislation cited (4)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Yusuf v Kioko (Civil Case No. 1072 of 1951) [1951] EACA 332 (1 January 1951)
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.