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TRC wins reference at Court of Appeal
2008-04-03 08:44:12
By Guardian Reporter
The Court of Appeal of Tanzania sittting in Dar es Salaam has allowed Tanzania Railways Corporation an extended time within which to file the record of appeal and to serve the same upon the respondent, Augusta Upendo Rweyemamu.
The court also directed the applicant to comply with the attendant order within fourteen days from the day the ruling was delivered.
The court further ordered that the costs of the reference in question abide by the result of the appeal.
That is contained in a ruling of the court in civil reference No.25 of 2005 recently delivered by a panel comprising Justices January Msoffe, Engela Kileo and Laurean Kalegeya.
The court`s decision comes in the wake of a dismissal order by the High Court of Tanzania of the applicant`s application before a single judge, seeking extension of time to institute an appeal after the expiration of 60 days.
In this reference, the respondent won a suit she filed in the High Court against the applicant and Paul Marwa.
The suit was for wrongful acts and the applicant was found vicariously liable for the actions of Paul Marwa who was their employee in the capacity of a security guard, hence the High Court awarded the respondent a sum of 15m/- in damages.
A notice of appeal was lodged and a letter applying for a copy of proceedings, judgement and decree was sent to the registrar and was duly served on the other party.
The appeal was, however, not instituted within 60 days after the issuance of the certificate of delay by the registrar as required by the law.
In coming to its decision, the court had to make a finding on whether there was sufficient cause for extending the time within which to institute the appeal.
The court observed that, though there was some lapse on the part of the advocate`s clerk, nevertheless the applicant, through his advocate,acted with reasonable diligence in correcting the error upon discovery.
``For this reason we find that an order extending time within which to file the record of appeal and to serve the same upon the respondent will be proper in the circumstances. In the event, the reference is allowed,`` the justices said.
This decision refers to the background that the applicant\'s application before a Single Judge of the present court seeking extension of time to institute an appeal after the expiration of the sixty days, was dismissed, hence the present reference and attendant decision.
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