Kampala tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia and Bank of Uganda have been strongly advised to settle their ongoing legal battles outside of Court.
The head of commercial court Judge David Wangutusi advised both parties after concluding hearing of an application in which Sudhir wants to stop firms of MMAKS and AF Mpanga advocates from representing Crane Bank and Bank of Uganda against him in a 400bn fraud case.
Justice Wangutusi has set the 14th of November to deliver his rulling on whether lawyers Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi and David Mpanga should stand down from representing Crane Bank and Bank of Uganda against Sudhir Ruparelia.
The judge said that the mediation should be encouraged to avoid one of the parties to get really hurt if the case comes up for a full hearing.
During hearing of the application, Sudhir’s lawyers led by Peter Kabatsi of Kampala Associated advocates informed justice Wangatusi that the 2 senior managing partners MMAKS and AF Mpanga advocates; Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi and David Mpanga are faced with conflict of interest as they have been listed by Sudhir as his witnesses to testify in his favour against Bank of Uganda allegations.
Sudhir’s lawyer Bruce Musinguzi explained that his client has already expressed fear that he may not get substantive justice because Masembe and Mpanga have been his lawyers for 12 years and are privy to confidential information which might be used to his prejudice.
Musinguzi has also cited numerous transactions to Court in which Masembe and Mpanga represented Crane Bank, Sudhir Ruparelia and Meera investments.
But in their defense both Masembe and Mpanga claim that although they did represent Crane Bank in several transactions, they never represented Sudhir in his individual capacity but as crane bank’s majority share holder.
The lawyers want court to maintain them as Crane Bank lawyers saying there is no evidence adduced by Sudhir to show that they have in any way breached their professional code of conduct having not even come across any information regarding the current case in which Bank of Uganda accuses Sudhir of fradulently siphoning over 100m Us dollars from his now defunct Crane Bank.
Meanwhile other parties to this case including businessman Amos Nzeyi the founder of now defunct National Bank of Commerce have welcomed justice Wangutusi’s advise for parties to embrace mediation saying he may get relief for his 5 year grievance ever since his bank was fraudulently sold by Bank of Uganda