Court of Appeal of Zambia - 2021 April

22 judgments
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Results. 22 judgments found.

22 judgments
April 2021
A valid party-made variation (with offer, acceptance and consideration) barred the seller's attempted rescission.
  • Contract law — Variation of contract by mutual agreement; offer, acceptance and consideration — Rescission — Law Association of Zambia General Conditions of Sale (Clause 7) — Specific performance.
29 April 2021
Cause of action accrued on resignation in 1989; failure to invoke administrative channels within ninety days rendered the complaint statute-barred.
  • Industrial and labour law — limitation periods — accrual of cause of action — Section 85(3) Industrial and Labour Relations Act — deferred accrual by administrative channels — requirement to invoke and exhaust administrative remedies within ninety days.
29 April 2021
Applicants failed to show irreparable harm; damages were adequate, so interim injunction was refused and single Judge’s decision upheld.
  • Civil procedure — interim injunction — applicant must show clear right to relief and irreparable injury not remediable by damages; where damages suffice, balance of convenience irrelevant.
23 April 2021
Leave to appeal denied for failure to show a point of law of public importance or reasonable prospects of success.
  • Court of Appeal — application for leave to appeal to Supreme Court — s.13 Court of Appeal Act — requirement of point of law of public importance and reasonable prospects of success — procedural non-compliance not necessarily fatal — appellate review of damages and excessive award.
23 April 2021
Leave to appeal denied: no point of law of public importance and no reasonable prospects of success.
  • Court of Appeal Act s13 — leave to appeal to Supreme Court; point of law of public importance; reasonable prospects of success; procedural non‑compliance; appellate interference with damages; excessive damages.
23 April 2021
Employer’s payment according to a later letter of offer may imply mutual variation, making that offer the operative employment document.
  • Employment law — Letter of offer versus formal written contract — Parol evidence and exceptions — Implied variation by conduct where employer pays under superior offer — Contra proferentum considered — Entitlement to allowances and gratuity — Costs under Industrial and Labour Relations Act (Rule 44(1)).
23 April 2021
A letter of offer implemented by payroll can impliedly vary a written employment contract, entitling the employee to enhanced terms.
  • Employment law — Whether a letter of offer signed and implemented by payroll can impliedly vary a later-written employment contract; admissibility of extrinsic evidence; entitlement to salary arrears, fuel allowance and gratuity; costs under Industrial and Labour Relations Act.
23 April 2021
23 April 2021
Long, unexplained delay and intervening unappealed judgments precluded setting aside a foreclosure judgment affecting a bona fide purchaser.
  • Civil procedure — Setting aside judgment obtained in absence — Order 35(5) HCR and Order 35 RSC — Promptness and delay — Prospects of success — Prejudice to bona fide purchaser — Res judicata — Foreclosure and equitable mortgage.
23 April 2021
Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court refused as the applicant's grounds lacked public importance and prospects of success.
  • Leave to appeal — Section 13 Court of Appeal Act — requirement of points of law of public importance and reasonable prospects of success; separate legal personality — waiver by failure to raise in arbitration; jurisdiction — competence of statement of case; locus standi — affidavits deposed by employee not a stranger; arbitral award — not induced by fraud or serious irregularity.
22 April 2021
Whether properties later registered in a company formed part of an intestate estate and how they should be disposed of.
  • Intestate succession; property registered post‑mortem; corporate separate personality vs estate; cancellation of certificate of title for impropriety; impracticability of common leasehold where beneficiary relations are irreparably broken; discretionary award of costs.
22 April 2021
Court affirmed estate ownership of property improperly registered post-death, ordered valuation and sale, rejected common leasehold, and each party bears costs.
  • Intestate succession — Certificate of title — Cancellation for impropriety post-mortem registration — Separate legal personality of a company — Alternative reliefs — Common leasehold impracticability due to animosity and communal facilities — Costs: discretion and no common estate fund.
22 April 2021
Circumstantial evidence (last seen with victim, found with newborn, led police to body) upheld murder conviction.
  • Criminal law — Murder — Circumstantial evidence — Cogent 'closely knit' chain of facts — Last seen with deceased; possession of newborn; led police to body — Investigative omissions (footprints, DNA, forensic exhibits) rebuttable but displaceable by overwhelming circumstantial proof — Malice aforethought under section 204.
21 April 2021
Court dismissed procedural objections to a Notice of Motion as curable irregularities and awarded costs in the cause.
  • Civil procedure — interlocutory applications — Notice of Motion — procedural irregularities — curability of defects; Court of Appeal Rules — index in record; certificate of record addressed to Master v Registrar; affidavit commissioning; heads of argument not mandatory for Notices of Motion.
21 April 2021
Bail pending appeal denied for lack of exceptional circumstances; separate stay of sale dismissed as appeal already operates as a stay.
  • Criminal procedure — bail pending appeal — exceptional circumstances required for bail; interlocutory relief — stay of sale of forfeited property — lodging criminal appeal operates as a stay; sentencing jurisdiction — contention regarding subordinate court's maximum sentence (not decided on merits).
21 April 2021
Whether circumstantial evidence (mask recovery, co‑accused linkage, ballistics) sufficed to convict the appellant.
  • Criminal law — Circumstantial evidence — staged reasoning test — linking facts must point to nothing else but guilt; Identification of exhibits (mask) as key linking evidence; Credibility and demeanour of accused; Sentencing — pronouncement on each count.
21 April 2021
Whether an issuing bank may be held liable for paying under a letter of credit when documents appear compliant under UCP 600.
  • Letters of credit — autonomy and strict compliance — UCP 600 (Articles 4, 14, 18, 34) — issuing bank's obligation to pay on apparently compliant documents — limits on bank liability for document accuracy and non-delivery — applicant–issuing bank relationship.
15 April 2021
Recent possession of a branded animal plus an implausible explanation can sustain a circumstantial-evidence conviction.
  • Criminal law — Stock theft — Circumstantial evidence and recent possession — Sufficiency and cogency of circumstantial proof — Compliance with section 169 Criminal Procedure Code (reasons for judgment).
13 April 2021
Confession must be tested by a trial within a trial when voluntariness is challenged; child‑witness identity requires corroboration.
  • Criminal law — Defilement — Proviso to s.138(1) Penal Code — Explanation of proviso where accused is represented — Confession — voluntariness — duty to hold trial within a trial — Juveniles Act s.122 — voire dire requirements and corroboration of child witness — identity corroboration — appellate quash and acquittal.
9 April 2021
Leave to appeal refused where a liquidated company proceeded without required leave and raised no public importance or prospects.
  • Appeal — leave to appeal to Supreme Court — discretionary threshold under s.13 Court of Appeal Act — company in liquidation — requirement for leave to commence or continue proceedings (s.66 Corporate Insolvency Act) — dismissal for want of prosecution — precedent and stare decisis (John Sangwa).
6 April 2021
A party may bring a separate Article 28 privacy petition despite related divorce proceedings; advocates may be sued for alleged rights violations.
  • Constitutional law — Article 28 (constitutional petition) — right to privacy; distinctness of matrimonial and constitutional causes; abuse of court process; liability of advocates and expert witnesses; disciplinary remedies do not oust constitutional claims.
6 April 2021
Unregistered trust deed is void; trust assets form part of intestate estate and administrators must render full inventory and account.
  • Intestate succession; unregistered deed of trust nullity; administrators' duty to render inventory and accounts (s.19 Intestate Succession Act); sales without court authority void; defective will incapable of probate.
1 April 2021