UGANDA, Wakiso | Real Muloodi News | The High Court of Uganda Land Division has ordered the Land Registration Commissioner to cancel five certificates of title that were issued on land in Gayaza, Wakiso District measuring over 45 acres.
Justice John Eudes Keitirm noted that the transference of names from Anselm Semakula as the original registered proprietor to the subsequent vendors who also transferred the proprietorship to Alice Karugaba was fraudulent.
The plaintiffs, Anna Nabatanzi Lule and her brothers Mike Kasule and Gerald Kirinya, the administrator of their father’s estate, the late Anselm Musoke, filed this case in 2010.
They sued Anselm Semakula and Alice Karugaba jointly with the Registrar of Land Titles at Wakiso due to fraudulent transfers on the land of the late Anselm Musoke.
The court documents reveal that Semakula Musoke died in 1977. He left behind the currently disputed land, now divided into five plots, although he died without disposing of his land.
However, court proceedings revealed that Anselm Semakula imposed himself as a son of the late Semakula Mukose.
Thereafter, he fraudulently sold part of the land to Herbert D. Sekandi and Latimer Kagimu.
The case also reveals that the subdivision of the land was done after a caveat was lodged.
However, the Land Registration Commissioner allegedly connived with Alice Karugaba and removed the caveat from the certificates of title without notifying the caveator or her lawyers.
The judge handling the case said that despite all the legal loopholes concerning the transfer of the land, Karugaba just went ahead to purchase it.
He says she either ignored the anomalies on the land or didn’t do the due diligence, which would have exposed all the legal mishaps.
“It is an elementary principle of our legal system that a litigant/client who is represented by an advocate is not bound by the acts or omissions of the advocate in the course of representation. Therefore, if Karugaba relied on her lawyer to carry out a search as she stated in her defense, she is bound by what her advocate advised her to do,” the judge explained.
He held that the land in question forms part of the estate of the late Anselm Semakula Musoke and that it should be administered by the legal administrators of his estate.
“I wish to add that a bona fide purchaser for value without notice of any fraud must have carried out reasonable due diligence before he or she has purchased the land on sale. This would ideally include carrying out a search on the title so as to verify ownership and whether the land is encumbered,” he continued.
He, thereafter, ordered the Land Registration Commissioner to put back the name of the deceased, Anselm Semakula Musoke in the register book that appears on the certificates of title.
Having restored the name, the Land Registration Commissioner will register the administrators of the estate of the deceased.
“An eviction is to issue against Karugaba from the land. A permanent injuction is to issue against the first and second defendants retsraining them from further trespass on the suit land,” the judge ruled.
He ordered the defendants to jointly pay the complainants general damages worth USh1 billion with an interest of 10 per cent from the date the judgment was made until payment is made in full.
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
Lira City Residents Save Mother of Six from Unlawful Eviction By Husband
Katanga Residents Seek USh300m Compensation and Protection from Illegal Eviction
