Bench Bulletin - Issue 12 - Kenya Law Reports
Bench Bulletin - Issue 12 - Kenya Law Reports
Bench Bulletin - Issue 12 - Kenya Law Reports
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KENYA LAW REPORTS<br />
BENCH BULLETIN<br />
FROM THE COURTS — COURT OF APPEAL<br />
Civil Practice and Procedure – stay of execution – application for stay of execution of a judgment and decree by the High<br />
Court – application grounded under sections 3A & 3B of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act – applicant having disobeyed an<br />
earlier order by the High Court to deposit security in an interest earning account – overriding objective of the Appellate<br />
Jurisdiction Act- whether the applicant could rely on the overriding objective having failed to comply with the High Court’s<br />
ruling – notice of appeal relating to the main judgment and not the High Court’s ruling - whether applicant could rely<br />
on the overriding objective provisions having disobeyed the High Court’s ruling – whether non-compliance with the High<br />
Court ruling had a bearing on the application before the appellate court – Rule 5 (2) (b) Court of Appeal Rules and sections<br />
3A & 3B of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act<br />
The applicant, Messrs Hunker Trading Company Limited, had applied to the High Court for<br />
a stay of execution of the judgment and decree in favour of the respondent, Elf Oil <strong>Kenya</strong><br />
Limited. The High Court granted the stay but instructed the applicant to deposit security in<br />
interest earning account to be opened in the joint names of the applicant’s and respondent’s<br />
advocates. However, the order subsequently lapsed without compliance by the applicant.<br />
At a later stage, the applicant under sections 3A and 3B of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act and<br />
Rule 5 (2) (b) of the Court of Appeal Rules made an application to the Court of Appeal seeking<br />
for a stay of execution of the judgment and decree of the High Court. The notice of appeal<br />
before the appellate court was directed against the main judgment delivered by the High<br />
Court but it was not against the court’s ruling which had ordered the applicant to deposit<br />
security. The Court of Appeal considered whether non-compliance with that High Court<br />
ruling had a bearing on the provisions of sections 3A and 3B of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act.<br />
The appellate court chose the call the overriding objection in civil litigation provided under<br />
The Hon. Mr. Justice<br />
E. M. Githinji<br />
section 1A of the Civil Procedure Act and sections 3A and 3B of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act ‘the Oxygen Principle<br />
(O2 principle)’<br />
Held:<br />
1. The applicant having admitted to having failed to comply with order of stay by the High Court order, the Court<br />
of Appeal found the applicant to be in breach of section 1A (3) of the Civil Procedure Act and section 3A (3) of the<br />
Appellate Jurisdiction Act.<br />
2. The fact that the order had since lapsed had in no way eroded the relevance of the disobedience of the order to the<br />
operation of the overriding objective.<br />
3. The thrust of applicant’s application to the appellate court under section 3A was substantially to seek similar orders<br />
to those he was granted in the superior court and disobeyed. Under section 1A (3) the applicant had a duty to obey all<br />
court processes and orders. Going to the Court of Appeal having abused the process in the superior court was a clear<br />
violation of the overriding objective of civil litigation.<br />
4. As the applicant did not appeal against the order of stay by the High Court for reasons of being onerous or unjust<br />
but instead just ignored it, the application fell outside the provisions of Rule 5(2) (b) and section 3B and was therefore<br />
incompetent.<br />
Application dismissed.<br />
Service in an Election Petition<br />
Dickson Daniel Karaba v John Ngata Kariuki & 2 others<br />
Court of Appeal at Nairobi<br />
Tunoi, Waki & Aganyanya JJ A<br />
March 19, 2010<br />
Reported by Esther Nyaiyaki Onchana<br />
Case History<br />
An appeal from the ruling and order of the High Court of <strong>Kenya</strong> at Nyeri (Kasango, J) dated 28th May, 2008 in H.C.<br />
Election Petition No. 1 of 2008<br />
Election law – service - service of an election petition – appeal against dismissal of an election petition by the High Court<br />
on the ground that service had not been conducted within the requisite period after publication of results – production<br />
of conflicting evidence before the High Court through conflicting affidavits regarding the service of the election petition<br />
- appellant’s process server swearing in an affidavit that the election petition had been served within the given period of<br />
time –1st respondent also swearing in an affidavit that the service of election of election petition as alleged by the process<br />
server did not take place – parties whether failure by the 1st respondent to cross examine the process server amounted to<br />
56<br />
<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>12</strong>: April-June 2010