Court of Appeal of Zambia - 2022 June

22 judgments
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Results. 22 judgments found.

22 judgments
June 2022
Writ served outside jurisdiction is irregular but curable; arbitration referral requires a formal Section 10 application.
  • Civil procedure — Appearance — Statutory Instrument No.58/2020 amended Order 11; conditional appearance abolished; memorandum of appearance and defence required
  • Service out of jurisdiction — Issuance and service of writ outside Zambia without leave is irregular but curable where no prejudice or default judgment
  • Arbitration — Stay and referral under Section 10(1) Arbitration Act require a proper motion/summons; skeleton arguments do not substitute formal application
  • Third party/Remoteness — Applicability of arbitral clause to third parties requires proper pleading and was not before the court
  • Costs — Party serving process irregularly condemned to costs for the improper strike-out application
30 June 2022
27 June 2022
An inordinate, unexplained delay by the applicant did not justify extending time to file the record of appeal despite COVID‑19 reasons.
  • Court of Appeal Rules — extension of time (Order XIII Rule 3) — sufficiency of reasons — inordinate delay — COVID‑19 registry delays do not automatically justify extension — duty to prosecute appeals promptly — prejudice and finality of litigation.
23 June 2022
The appellant proved special damages from the respondent’s razing of premises; appeal allowed and damages awarded.
  • Evidence — burden of proof — special damages; Lease termination — notice periods and breach; Appellate review of factual findings; Valuation — fair market value assessment; Unpleaded issues considered where not objected to.
23 June 2022
Leave to appeal granted where trial judge assumed collusion and effectively pierced corporate veil without proper findings.
  • Leave to appeal — test of realistic prospects of success; Interpleader proceedings — Order XLII Rule 2(b) High Court Rules — burden to show non-collusion; Enforcement of foreign judgment — execution and seizure of goods; Corporate personality — piercing the corporate veil and single economic unit doctrine; Time limits — notice of claim within five days.
23 June 2022
Whether the appellant was a bona fide purchaser for value without notice of a sitting tenant's equitable interest.
  • Property law — bona fide purchaser for value without notice; constructive notice and caveats; sitting tenant equitable interest; due diligence via Lands and Deeds Registry searches; review of judgment under Order 39.
17 June 2022
Leave to appeal refused where repeated discovery applications were res judicata and constituted abuse of process.
  • Civil procedure — discovery — further and better list of documents — Order 24 RSC (rule 7) — res judicata applied to interlocutory applications — abuse of court process — leave to appeal to Supreme Court under Section 13 Court of Appeal Act.
16 June 2022
Administrator's persistent mismanagement, unauthorized sales and failure to account justified revocation of letters and replacement administrator appointment.
  • Intestate succession — administrator's duties and powers — failure to render accounts and unauthorized sales as grounds for revocation of letters of administration; caveat as protective measure; equitable adjustment of distribution for misappropriated proceeds.
16 June 2022
A conviction grounded on nighttime recognition was quashed for failure to exclude honest but mistaken identification.
  • Criminal law — identification evidence — recognition by acquaintances — night-time observation — need to exclude honest but mistaken identification — conviction unsafe where identification evidence is unsatisfactory.
15 June 2022
Excluding a defence recording without testing its authenticity breached the appellants' right to a fair trial; convictions set aside and retrial ordered.
  • Evidence — admissibility of electronic recordings — court must allow evidence on circumstances of recording and may listen to recordings before excluding; fair trial — exclusion of defence evidence may render trial unfair; remedy — retrial ordered where prejudice shown.
15 June 2022
The appellants' appeal dismissed; identification evidence reliable and alibi insufficiently raised, convictions and sentences upheld.
  • Criminal law — identification evidence and recognition — risk of honest but mistaken identity; credibility of interested witnesses; alibi and duty to investigate; dereliction of investigative duty; appellate deference to trial credibility findings.
15 June 2022
Conviction for defilement upheld: special and compelling circumstances justified relying on a child’s uncorroborated testimony.
  • Criminal law — Defilement — Corroboration of prosecutrix's evidence — "Special and compelling grounds" for convicting on uncorroborated testimony; witness interest and motive to falsify; corroboration by opportunity versus suspicious conduct.
15 June 2022
Res gestae wrongly admitted, but circumstantial evidence independently supported the murder conviction.
  • Criminal law — evidence — res gestae — contemporaneity/proximity requirement; circumstantial evidence — cogency and inference of guilt; murder conviction; admissibility of post-event statements.
15 June 2022
Statement to a third party was not res gestae, but remaining circumstantial evidence sufficed to uphold the murder conviction.
  • Evidence — res gestae — requirement of approximate contemporaneity; Hearsay — exclusion where possibility of concoction exists; Criminal law — circumstantial evidence must be cogent so only inference of guilt remains; Murder — sufficiency of circumstantial proof.
15 June 2022
Fatal head injury by one assailant upheld as murder; co‑assailants convicted instead of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
  • Criminal law — Murder — Causation and common purpose — Fatal head injury by hacking attributable to first appellant; other participants only shown to have assaulted with sticks — Suspect witnesses (relatives) — Substitution to assault occasioning actual bodily harm under s.181(2) Criminal Procedure Code.
15 June 2022
Qualified privilege protected a bank's email absent proved express malice; liquidated damages in tort were improper and injunction unnecessary.
  • Defamation — qualified privilege — express malice required to defeat privilege; pleading requirements for particulars of malice; damages in tort are unliquidated and must be assessed; injunctions contingent on successful substantive claim.
13 June 2022
Registrar may review dismissal for want of prosecution, but the taxation award was set aside for ignoring respondent's objections.
  • Civil procedure — taxation of costs — Registrar's power to review dismissal for want of prosecution — Order VII Rule 3 Court of Appeal Rules; timing of taxation under Order XII Rule 2 — practical delay where taxing officers not appointed; failure to consider objections to bill of costs — prejudice and rehearing ordered.
7 June 2022
A labour-division judgment delivered after the statutory one-year limit is void; matter set aside and remitted for rehearing.
  • Industrial and Labour Relations Act — s.19(3)(b)(ii) — statutory one-year disposal period — judgment delivered after one year void for want of jurisdiction; interlocutory procedure — jurisdictional challenges must be raised formally (Order 7 Rule 1(1) CAR); remedy: set aside and remit; complaint deemed filed on appellate judgment date.
7 June 2022
A derivative action in a company’s name requires prior leave under section 331 of the Companies Act; absence of leave renders the claim a nullity.
  • Companies law — Derivative action — Requirement of leave under section 331 Companies Act 2017 — Members’ voluntary winding up — Validity of written/special resolution under section 77 Companies Act — Corporate Insolvency Act (voluntary liquidation, solvency declaration, appointment of liquidators) — Nullity of derivative claim brought without statutory leave.
1 June 2022
Whether mesne profits can be awarded without a landlord-tenant relationship and without being specifically pleaded.
  • Property law — unlawful occupation; Mesne profits as damages — may be inferred from pleadings seeking rent arrears and damages; Mesne profits require landlord-tenant relationship; Substitution of damages for mesne profits; Damages to run from date of loss of possession until vacation; interest and costs.
1 June 2022
1 June 2022
Whether dismissal under Order 14A RSC was proper when execution had occurred and a set-aside application remained pending.
  • Civil procedure — Order 14A RSC — dismissal of applications where there is "nothing to stay"; execution and sale of attached property; scope of preliminary points; remittal where set-aside proceedings pending.
1 June 2022