SPICL is represented by Fred Muwema
Commercial Court has made a huge say in an on-going Court battle between Simba Properties Investment Co. Ltd (SPICL) and Vantage Mezzanine Fund II Partnership.
This matter arises from Miscellaneous Application No. 0414 of 2022.
On December 11, 2021 Simba Properties executed an agreement with the Mezzanine Term facility Agreement by which SPICL borrowed a sum of US$ 10, 000, secured by property registered in the names of SPICL.
However, a difference arose when SPICL defaulted on the repayment agreement.
SPICL, however, went to Court to contest actions of the lender in auctioning properties of SPICL.
In a ruling shared Tuesday, Justice Stephen Mubiru ruled that “I find that the balance of convenience is in favour of the respondents (Vantage Mezzanine Fund II Partnership)” and sanctioned the applicants noting that “courts have inherent power to maintain respect for their authority and to punish conduct that threatens the proper administration of justice.”
This, Justice Mubiru, said includes awarding costs against advocates personally.
“An advocate who initiates proceedings unreasonably and vexatiously, may be required by the court to personally satisfy the costs of the litigation,” he said.
Singling out the applicants’ lawyer (Fred Muwema), Justice Mubiru, said that an advocate may be ordered to pay costs where he or she has caused costs to be incurred without reasonable cause or to be wasted by undue delay, negligence, egregious misconduct or other default that rises to a “rare and exceptional” level.
These may include filing a pleading containing allegations that lack a proper basis; applying for an adjournment of a trial on the day it is listed to commence without sufficient justification; failure to comply with a court order resulting in the dismissal of a proceeding, knowingly misrepresenting facts and misleading the court, undermining the authority of the court, severely interfering with the administration of justice, when costs have been wasted by the failure to conduct proceedings with reasonable competence and expedition, where the advocate advances a wholly disingenuous case or files utterly ill-conceived applications 30 even though the advocate ought to have known better, and so on.
SPICL is represented by Fred Muwema.
In filing this particular application, Justice Mubiru said that the advocates’ default rises to a “rare and exceptional” level.
“Basic professional competence demands that an advocate seeking interlocutory relief should first establish that there is a substantive matter pending before the court, which they did not. Basic professional competence further demands that an advocate seeking intervention of this court in proceedings pending before a magistrate’s court should do so by invoking its prerogative or supervisory powers, and not otherwise. In the same proceeding, they join as respondents advocates whose only role was to facilitate their client’s cause, thereby seeking to restrain professional colleagues from carrying out their duties as officers of the court. It is an advocate’s professional responsibility to ensure that all suits and applications filed possess a proper legal basis, yet this application is entirely misconceived and devoid of legal foundation,” Justice Mubiru said.
Justice Mubiru said further that the application “catastrophically lacks a legal basis.”
“The legal costs and time wasted in this litigation could have been avoided entirely if the applicants’ advocates had discharged their duties to the expected minimum standards of professional competence. It qualifies as a “rare and exceptional” case where it would not be fair for the applicants to bear the costs. The costs must be met by the applicants’ advocates in person. Consequently, the application is hereby dismissed. The costs of this application will be met personally by counsel on record for the applicants,” Justice Mubiru ruled.
Commenting on the ruling, former Uganda Law Society (ULS) President Simon Peter Kinobe said “the ruling by Justice Stephen Mubiru in Simba Properties & Ors Vs Vantage Capital & Ors is one that every lawyer should read and take exceptional caution. A precursor of the impending outcome.”
