Judgement
Justice Susan Odongo has reinstated a Shs 120 million loan recovery suit filed by Goldmine Finance Limited after finding that its earlier dismissal was caused by misleading information from a court clerk, not deliberate neglect by the parties.
In a ruling delivered on June 7, 2026, the judge ordered that Civil Suit No. 512 of 2023 be restored and heard on its merits, holding that justice is best served when disputes are determined through a full hearing rather than on technicalities. Goldmine Finance had sued Joseph Kasirye Lwanga and Mubiru Derick Eria over a loan facility of more than Shs 100 million, guaranteed by the second defendant (Mubiru Derick Eria).
The case was dismissed on January 14, 2026, when neither the parties nor their lawyers appeared, following earlier communication from a court clerk that the presiding judge would be absent on that date.
In supporting the application for reinstatement, Goldmine’s legal manager, Alex Wanderema, and counsel Daphne Atuhaire argued that the non-attendance was an honest and genuine mistake caused by that misleading notice, and that the company had previously prosecuted the matter diligently. The respondents, represented by counsel Joan Ankunda, did not file any affidavits in reply or written submissions.
In her decision, Justice Odongo held that the applicant had shown sufficient cause for its absence, emphasizing that a substantial claim over UGX 100 million should not be extinguished “because a clerk gave misleading information.”
She noted that reinstating the suit would not prejudice the respondents in any way that could not be compensated by costs, and that the right to a fair hearing under Article 28(1) of the Constitution required the matter to be heard fully. “Justice is not served in the silence of a dismissed file, but in the robust debate of a hearing,” she wrote, adding that Civil Suit No. 512 of 2023 was being “restored to the record, to be determined not by the accident of a clock, but by the weight of the evidence.”
