The Commercial Court has awarded Equity Bank Uganda Limited, Meera Investments Limited and Luwaluwa Investments Limited legal costs in an application against Simbamanyo Estates Limited. “
It is trite law that costs are based on the scale and the value of the subject matter which is dependent on the amount claimed in the plaint, said His Worship Kisawuzi Elias Omar on the 5th of November 2021.
Equity bank was awarded UGX 600,000,000, Meera Investments was awarded UGX 400,000,000 and Luwaluwa Investments UGX 300,000,000.
Simbamanyo Estates Limited, owned by Peter Kamya had utilised its prime properties as guarantees against its loans from Equity bank Ltd in November 2017. Failure to fulfil their loan obligations, Equity Bank went on to recover the outstanding debt worth $10.8 million which is about Shs40 billion.
In a bid to recover the outstanding debt, two properties were put for sale and these are Simbamanyo House on Lumumba Avenue and Afrique Suites, a four-star hotel at Mutungo Hill. This was after a notice was issued to Simbamanyo Estates demanding US$398,362.33.
Simbamanyo Estates sued Equity Bank in an attempt to stop or delay the sale of the properties.
Court denied the appeal and the properties were sold.
Simbamanyo Estates was sold to Meera Investments Limited which belongs to Sudhir Ruparelia while Afrique Suites was sold to Luwaluwa Investments.
An appeal to the court to overturn the sale of Simbamanyo House to Meera Investments was made on 17th February, 2021 but the Commercial Court denied the appeal. Simbamanyo was instead ordered by court to pay Equity Bank, Meera Investments Ltd, Luwaluwa Investments and the Commissioner of Land Registration legal costs.
It is upon this background that Equity Bank Lawyers filed a bill of fees to be approved by the court and sought after.