Skip to document content Skip to main menu Skip to search

Principal Registry Lusaka - 2025 September

11 judgments
Advanced search
Skip past Court registries
Skip past years
Skip past months
Filters
Skip to results
11 judgments
September 2025
JOSEPH CHIBESA AND ORS V SILVESTER KAPESO AND ORS (2023/HP / 1473; 2023/HP/1475) [2025] ZMHC 81 (29 September 2025)
29 September 2025
Stiffstick Industries Limited v Dahua Enterprises Limited and Ors (2017/HP/1929) [2025] ZMHC 83 (23 September 2025)
Registered title is conclusive; unregistered occupiers are trespassers and the register must be rectified and occupiers evicted.
  • Land law — Lands and Deeds Registry Act s33 — Indefeasibility of registered title — Certificate of title conclusive absent fraud or mistake — Unregistered possession and administrative receipts do not defeat registered title — Register rectification and cancellation/amendment of overlapping certificate — Trespass, eviction and assessment of mesne profits.
23 September 2025
Mwenya and Another v Mwachilele (2024/HP/1726) [2025] ZMHC 206 (15 September 2025)
Interim injunction confirmed to restrain respondent's alleged defamatory publications pending trial.
  • :[
15 September 2025
People v Teddy Phiri and Ors (HPJ/01/2022) [2025] ZMHC 107 (9 September 2025)
A failed defence and personal circumstances did not reduce moral blameworthiness; life sentences imposed for murder.
  • Penal Code s.201 — murder sentencing — extenuating circumstances defined as facts diminishing moral blameworthiness — failed defence/mistake of fact not automatically mitigating — deliberate violence, abandonment and concealment preclude mitigation — life imprisonment imposed.
9 September 2025
Kwikbuild Corporation Zambia Limited v All Unknown Occupants and Another (2024/HP/1432) [2025] ZMHC 199 (8 September 2025)
8 September 2025
Masauso Banda v Yotam Banda and Others (2024/HPF/794) [2025] ZMHC 210 (5 September 2025)
Court found fraud exception tolled limitation, dismissed jurisdictional plea, and converted originating summons to writ for trial.
  • Limitation Act (1939) — Sections 4(3), 19(1) and 20 — fraud/mistake postpones start of limitation; pleading fraud — distinct factual allegations suffice without literal use of the word; probate procedure — originating summons inappropriate for highly contentious fraud allegations; court's discretion to convert originating summons to writ under procedural rules; administrators' duty to render accounts.
5 September 2025
The People v Clever Hamuchemba and Others (HP/264/2025) [2025] ZMHC 226 (4 September 2025)
Acquittal where prosecution failed to prove causation or malice and investigative/forensic failures undermined the circumstantial case.
  • Criminal law — Murder: elements of causation, unlawful act and malice aforethought; Circumstantial evidence—necessity for cogency and exclusion of reasonable alternatives; Forensic evidence and police duty—timely post‑mortem, production of exhibits and DNA results; Dereliction of investigative duty can operate in favour of the accused.
4 September 2025
The People v Phineas Hamukolyo (HP/272/2025) [2025] ZMHC 224 (3 September 2025)
Circumstantial evidence and the accused's admission suffice to convict for vandalism; duplicative malicious-damage count dismissed.
  • Criminal law — Vandalism (s341D Penal Code) — Circumstantial evidence — Accused's admissions as corroboration — Duplicity in indictment — Malicious-damage count defective.
3 September 2025
The People v Wilson Chibandika (HP/266/2025) [2025] ZMHC 223 (3 September 2025)
The court admitted the victim’s spontaneous statements as res gestae, rejected an uncorroborated alibi, and convicted the accused of murder.
  • Criminal law — Murder — elements: causation and malice aforethought; Res gestae — admissibility of victim’s spontaneous statements; Credibility of relatives’ witnesses; Alibi — requirement for particulars and corroboration; Forensic pathology — cause of death from sharp and blunt trauma.
3 September 2025
The People v Maluba Maambo (HPR/04/2025) [2025] ZMHC 71 (2 September 2025)
Forfeiture of recognizance requires hearing; conflating contempt and detaining paid sureties is unlawful.
  • Criminal procedure — Forfeiture of recognizance (s.131 CPC) — Surety's right to be informed and heard — Distinction between forfeiture and contempt — Jurisdiction to detain where recognizance paid — High Court supervisory review (s.337–338 CPC; Subordinate Courts Act s.54).
2 September 2025
Vens Consultancy And Genral Trading Limited t/a Marce Suppliers And General Dealers v Anti Corruption Commission And Others (2025/HP/0824) [2025] ZMHC 218 (2 September 2025)
High Court lacked jurisdiction to challenge a Subordinate Court warrant of seizure; the issuing court must be approached first.
  • Warrant of seizure — court order remains in force until set aside by issuing court — jurisdiction; Comity of courts — a court should not determine matters actively before another court; Constitutional challenge to subordinate court orders — must be initiated in issuing court; Locus standi and mode of commencement (not determined as otiose); Order 2 Rule 2 and Order 33 Rule 7 (White Book).
2 September 2025