Tycoon Ham in Tears as Supreme Court Dismisses His Application in Case against DTB

The Supreme Court has thrown out an application Kampala-based tycoon Hamis Kiggundu aka Ham had filed seeking an order of judgment, claiming that respondents in his appeal, DTB Uganda and DTB Kenya, had made some key admissions.

The trouble between Ham and DTB began after he reportedly failed to clear a $10m loan secured from the bank.

The tycoon would rush to the High Court, claiming that the financial institutions — DTB Uganda and DTB Kenya — had illegally debited Shs120bn from his accounts, shilling and dollar.

In his ruling, Justice Peter Adonyo of the High Court ordered DTB to refund the Shs120bn after Ham convinced the same judge that there was no need to have an independent auditor to prove the claims that the money was illegally hewed off the accounts.

DTB appealed Adonyo’s ruling and the Court of Appeal set aside the same. But Ham appealed.

Now, ahead of the ruling on the businessman’s appeal in the Supreme Court, he had claimed that DTB had made some admissions.

On November 26, through his lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates and M/s Kimara Advocates and Consultants, Kiggundu had asked the highest court in the land to rule in his favour on the basis of the bank’s alleged admissions.

“It is evident that the above application if successful can dispose of the whole appeal. Since the judgement in the appeal was reserved on notice, it is necessary that this Application be heard earlier so that any further steps in the appeal are guided by the outcome of the application,” wrote Ham’s lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates and Kimara Advocates and Consultants.

“In the premise, we humbly request that the said application be fixed for hearing on a date convenient to the honourable court. We shall oblige your action in the matter.”

But in a letter written on December 01, Didas Muhumuza, an Assistant Registrar at the Supreme Court, responded with a dismissal of the application.

“The above Civil Miscellaneous Application No. 51 of 2021 seeks an order for Judgment on admission of the grounds of appeal by the respondent, pending the final Judgment in Civil Appeal No. 13 of 2021, to be delivered on notice. The Supreme Court reserved the Judgment after hearing all pleadings/ submissions as scheduled and closed,” wrote Muhumuza.

“In my view, your instant application does not raise any new issue to necessitate any further/ new filings, which would, in any case, require leave of court to do so. What you are seeking in your application will most likely be taken care of in the final Judgment since the grounds of Appeal by the Respondent to be relied on are already on Court Record. You are, therefore, advised to wait for the final decision of the Court which will hopefully address our concerns.”