Court records show that Equity Bank and Sudhir have doggedly tried to kill the Simbamanyo case wherein they were sued for illegal, malicious and fraudulent acquisition of the Simbamanyo properties; Simbamanyo House in the Central Business District (CBD) and Afrique Suites Hotel – Mutungo.
After having the fraudulent sale suit HCCS No 837/2020 irregularly abated, they went on to ensure that the appeal against the abatement was also dismissed and claimed colossal sums of money in costs to boot!
In fact, recently the Chief Justice Hon. Alphonse Owiny-Doro warned Judicial offices against awarding excessively high costs and damages. Simbamanyo, in an appeal, has since challenged those costs.
Meanwhile, Simbamanyo filed, as is required by law, a new suit, although all sorts of obstacles were put in their way to ensure that suit HCCS No. 464/2021 did not see the light of day by filing all sorts of applications to block it.
One of them was application HCMA No. 1244/2021 in which Sudhir, through his lawyers of Walusimbi & Company Advocates, prayed court to dismiss the case, arguing that the matter had been abated, and sought to have it struck out for alleged abuse of court process, something Simbamanyo’s legal team of Byenkya, Kihika & Co advocates, together with Muwema & Co. Advocates and Kakuru & Co. advocates vehemently opposed in court.
In his ruling, the no nonsense and incorruptible head of the commercial court Justice Mubiru dismissed their application with costs and ordered that the case must be heard.
Architect Kamya was asked how he felt about this outcome in the commercial court and he concluded:
“We believe in the end truth and justice will prevail.”
Meanwhile, Simbamanyo has since denounced all Sudhir and Equity Bank’s machinations and mudslinging plus other tricks they are using to pervert the course of justice.
Simbamanyo decided to put out a press statement recently to set the record straight. They stated that;
There had been numerous news articles probably sponsored by Equity Bank, their surrogates and apologists that had been trending in the media relating to the cases that Simbamanyo kept losing in court, giving the impression that court had already decided the fraudulent sale case and related appeals in favor of Equity Bank and its surrogates.
Simbamanyo clarified that they had so far filed the following cases in court:
i) Civil Suit No.198/2020 Against Equity Bank for False Accounting and Engaging in illegal lending
ii) Civil Suit No. 837/2020 against the illegal and fraudulent sale of our properties
iii) HCMA No. 922 /2020 Mandatory & Prohibitory Injunction
iv) HMCA No, 003/2021 Appeal against HCMA No. 922/2020
v) HCMA No. 224 Appeal against the irregular abatement of Civil Suit No. 837/2020 (Fraudulent sale)
vi) HCMA No. 718 /2021 Application for interim order against the removal of the court orders as a result of the irregular abatement.
vii) HCMA No. 719 Application for main stay in tandem with HCMA 718 above.
Simbamanyo wanted the public to know that out of those cases, Civil Suit No. 198/2020 Main Suit Against Equity Bank for False Accounting and Engaging in Illegal lending was yet to be heard, Civil Suit No. 837/2020 against the fraudulent sale of its properties was irregularly abated and hence has not been heard. Nor had the other Misc. Applications arising out of the irregular abatement.
Only Misc. Application No. 922 /2020 (Mandatory & Prohibitory Injunction) and Misc. Application No. 224/2021 (Appeal against the irregular abatement of Civil Suit No. 837/2020 – Fraudulent sale) have been heard.
Sudhir and his cohorts had claimed colossal sums in costs close to UGX 10b for those cases. However, in the taxation ruling the court awarded costs only in three i.e.:
a)HCMA No. 003/2021, (Appeal against HCMA No. 922/2020).
b)HCMA No. 224/2021 (Appeal against the irregular abatement of Civil Suit No. 837/2020 – Fraudulent sale)
c)HCMA No. 718/2021, Application for interim order against the removal of the court orders as a result of the irregular abatement.
Of the three cases above only HCMA No. 224/2021 (Appeal against the irregular abatement of Civil Suit No. 837/2020 – Fraudulent sale) had been heard.
However, it is regrettable that in utter contempt and disregard of the on-going court process, Sudhir and Equity Bank have, blatantly, continued to give the impression that they have already won the case whereas not.
It is intriguing if not preposterous that these people have continued to get away with so much impunity for so long, including lying to the President through their surrogates and apologists that what they did was in accordance with the law.