Justice Paul Gadenya has on Tuesday set 3 April, 2019 as the hearing date for a conflict of interest case filed by city property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia against Law firm Sebalu and Lule Advocates.
“I had asked this case to be mentioned because it is my first time dealing with it. However all I want now is to have the hearing plan for this application,” Justice Gadenya said.
Early this month, Commercial Court Head Judge Justice David Wangutusi sent back the case to Justice Jane Alividza ‘to finish what she had started’. However Alividza also declined to hear it thus ending up in Gadenya’s hands.
In his suit, Mr Ruparelia demands that a permanent injunction be put on the law firm, banning it from appearing before the court as a representative for dfcu bank, and the other court cases that Crane Management Services and dfcu are engaged in.
He says Sebalu and Lule Advocates were unfit to represent Bank of Uganda (BoU) and dfcu bank because they once represented Crane Management Services which owned Crane Bank in several court cases.
“In view of the advocate-client relationship between the applicant (Crane Management Services Ltd) and the 1st respondent (Sebalu & Lule advocates), the latter’s continued participation as defence counsel for the 2nd respondent (Dfcu bank) herein, which is the defendant in High Court Civil Suit (HCCS) No. 109/2018 against the applicant/plaintiff, is prejudicial to the applicant’s head suit,” an affidavit reads in part.
However, Peter Walubiri, the lawyer of Sebalu and Lule Advocates asked court to allow him to file a defence in reply to Ruparelia’s plaint citing there were new issues brought up which do not pertain in the case. Court has granted him leave up to March 21 before the hearing begins.
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