Uganda Commercial Court orders bank to produce prime city property land title

Wednesday, 28th September, 2011

The Commercial Court has ordered dfcu Bank to produce a land title of a prime city property worth $4m (over sh10b).

The property is at the centre of an ownership wrangle between an Asian returnee, Anil Hasam Shamji and Haji Numani Mubi-Akulamusa, a Kampala businessman.

Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire, the head of the Commercial Court, ordered the bank to produce the land title that Haji Mubi-Akulamusa mortgaged.

The judge also ordered the Registrar of Titles to produce in court the ‘White page’ of the same property to assist him determine its ownership.

This followed an application in which Mubi-Akulamusa sought a court order, stopping Shamji from evicting him from the property. The two have been entangled in the legal battle over the property ownership for about seven years. The property is in leasehold register volume 149, folio 8 Plot 1 on Lubaga Road in Old Kampala.

Shamji told court that after obtaining powers of attorney to repossess the property on behalf of Friends Estates Limited in 1992, he was authorised to represent it and its shareholders in court. They are Daulat Khan Hassam Shamji, his mother and Malek Sultan Rajabal. The family currently lives in Toronto, Canada. Shamji told court that he was delegated to handle the matter after the family learnt that their property had been sold in 2004.

The 61-year-old was born at Mitala Maria village, Mawokota Mpigi district. He said in 2005 he obtained court orders to evict Mubi-Akulamusa and his tenants from the property, which has 20 flats.

The court also stopped the sale and transfer of the property until the final disposal of the case, citing illegalities that affected all transactions.

It also cancelled a consent judgment that had been entered into by some parties observing that it had been intended to circumvent justice.

It was at this stage that the court ordered that Friends Estates Limited should be added as a co-defendant to the application made by Mubi-Akulamusa, seeking to stop eviction through an objector application.

Mubi-Akulamusa argues that he was not a party to the application in which Shamji obtained the orders to evict him from the property.

By Hillary Nsambu: The New Vision Newspaper