Justice Patience Rubagumya of the Commercial Division of the High Court has dismissed the claim filed by Exim bank seeking an order directing Westwinds trading company Matco limited to file security for cost before their Shs350m fraudulent case kicks off.
On behalf of the Exim bank, Emmaculate Murungi the bank’s legal official through her affidavit pleaded with the presiding judge to allow their application on grounds that Westwinds company has no known assets within the jurisdiction of the Commercial Division of the High Court that can be sold to recover their money after they defeated them in court.
She insisted that the bank has high chances of winning the case because they exercised due diligence and verified the garnishee order issued by the Court on 4th May, 2022 which resulted in the case before the court.
However, Lovemore Marowa protested the application in his affidavit insisting that there are available avenues where the bank can recover its money if his company loses the main suit noting that they have a bank-customer relationship.
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But the bank rubbished this claim.
According to court documents, on 22nd February, 2022, Westwinds company entered into a Sales Purchase Agreement with Mark Africa Uganda limited for the supply of Non-GMO soya beans.
Working on the advice of the bank, both parties agreed to open up a dollar bank account in Exim bank to ensure that the performance of the Contract is well executed.
Documents read that the bank guided that opening of a dollar account was going to help the bank to monitor the payments and for the purposes of monitoring and ensuring that the agreement was executed well.
Documents read that Lovemore together with Michael Opkwo the director of Mark Africa were appointed as signatories to the account and the bank account was consequently opened on 28th February, 2022 and with immediate effect the company transferred a total of USD 238,000 to the account for the purchase of 476 metric tons of soya beans.
However, without the consent of the company as agreed, the bank transferred USD 95,841 to Wamimbi & Co. Advocates on Account No. 0050012771 claiming that they were acting on court orders which the international company questioned.
The company insisted that the bank fraudulently transferred its monies noting that the money was transferred before the order was issued.
They requested that the bank should be forced to pay back its money even though the bank argues that it followed all the required steps to transfer the money.
“Having considered that the Respondent is seeking recovery of money, and there is a possibility that the transaction in issue might have been fraudulent and further because the Applicant has failed to convince this Court that the Respondent will be unable to meet the costs of the suit, this application fails, and the same is hereby dismissed,” the judge ruled.
