Court grants right to appeal in ship attachment case


The Court of Appeal has allowed Motor Vessel Sepideh and Pemba Island Tours and Safaris to challenge attachment and sale of a ship to recover 100,000 US dollars (over 160m/-) issued in favour of two respondents, Yusuf Mohamed Yusuf and Ahmed Abdullah.

Judge Ibrahim Juma ruled that the two applicants (MV Sepideh and Pemba Island) have prima facie shown that there was need for the parties to be heard by full court over the seriousness and irregularities which they have alleged.

“Having considered the motion for an extension of time within which to apply for review, it appears to me that good cause exists for granting of such motion. An extension of time is hereby granted with costs,” the judge ruled.

In the application, the two sought for extension of time to file an application for revision of the proceedings, ruling and orders of the High Court of Zanzibar at Vuga given by Judge Abdulhakim Issa on various dates between June 21, 2012 and March 19, 2013.

The applicants had applied for extension of time to enable them to lodge an application for revision outside the prescribed time of 60 days from the date of decision of the High Court.

In his ruling, the judge noted that 72 days had passed between March 19, last year, when the High Court delivered its last ruling and on May 31, last year, when the applicants filed the application in question.


He said that the applicants were supposed to apply for revision by May 20, last year. One of the grounds the applicants had cited was that the proceedings in the High Court were tainted with irregularities.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the affidavit by Idrissa Sheha Maalim furnishes good cause why the applicants could not lodge the application for revision before they received services of the advocates,” the judge noted.

With due respect to Mr Daimu Halfani, counsel for the applicants, some decisions of the court he had cited to support the application settle that illegality was invariably regarded to be sufficient reason to extend time.

By FAUSTINE KAPAMA, Tanzania Daily News

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