Businessman Sudhir Ruparelia has won his case against city business law firm, Sebalu and Lule Advocates.
Sudhir ran to court in 2017 seeking orders stopping Sebalu and Lule Advocates from representing dfcu bank citing conflict of interest in a matter involving the defunct Crane bank.
Sudhir argued that it would be unfair for Sebalu and Lule Advocates to represent his rivals since the firm already worked for him. Sudhir is demanding rent arrears of Shs 2.9 billion and $385,728.44 from dfcu bank for using the premises formerly occupied by Crane bank.
According to suit, when dfcu took over the assets and liabilities of Crane bank upon its closure in 2016, it also occupied the said rented properties for which Crane Management Services are seeking rent arrears. Dfcu hired a team of lawyers from Ssebalu and Lule Advocates including James Sebugenyi Mukasa to represent them.
Sudhir rose up in protest, saying the same firm had represented Meera Investments Limited, which is part of the Ruparelia Company that belongs to him since 2012. Today morning, Festo Ngenga, the Commercial court registrar ruled in Sudhir’s favour.
He issued a permanent injunction stopping Ssebalu and Lule Advocates from participating in any case involving Ruparelia Group.
“I found that the first respondent (Sebalu and Lule Advocates) is in possession of privileged and confidential information that came into his possession by virtue of being counsel to the applicant (Sudhir under Crane management Services) The information is relevant and current and relates to the matters in High court case suit No. 109 of 2018 involving the applicant. The first respondent is therefore conflicted and cannot ably represent the second. I accordingly grant an injunction stopping the first Respondent from acting as counsel for the second respondent in this case” reads part of the ruling.
The respondents are to pay the costs of the application. Sudhir welcomed the court ruling, saying he had written to court several times pointing out the issue of his former work relationship with the firm.
Sudhir ran to court in 2017 seeking orders stopping Sebalu and Lule Advocates from representing dfcu bank citing conflict of interest in a matter involving the defunct Crane bank.
Sudhir argued that it would be unfair for Sebalu and Lule Advocates to represent his rivals since the firm already worked for him. Sudhir is demanding rent arrears of Shs 2.9 billion and $385,728.44 from dfcu bank for using the premises formerly occupied by Crane bank.
According to suit, when dfcu took over the assets and liabilities of Crane bank upon its closure in 2016, it also occupied the said rented properties for which Crane Management Services are seeking rent arrears. Dfcu hired a team of lawyers from Ssebalu and Lule Advocates including James Sebugenyi Mukasa to represent them.
Sudhir rose up in protest, saying the same firm had represented Meera Investments Limited, which is part of the Ruparelia Company that belongs to him since 2012. Today morning, Festo Ngenga, the Commercial court registrar ruled in Sudhir’s favour.
He issued a permanent injunction stopping Ssebalu and Lule Advocates from participating in any case involving Ruparelia Group.
“I found that the first respondent (Sebalu and Lule Advocates) is in possession of privileged and confidential information that came into his possession by virtue of being counsel to the applicant (Sudhir under Crane management Services) The information is relevant and current and relates to the matters in High court case suit No. 109 of 2018 involving the applicant. The first respondent is therefore conflicted and cannot ably represent the second. I accordingly grant an injunction stopping the first Respondent from acting as counsel for the second respondent in this case” reads part of the ruling.
The respondents are to pay the costs of the application. Sudhir welcomed the court ruling, saying he had written to court several times pointing out the issue of his former work relationship with the firm.
"It is a historical ruling, this is the state of our law fraternity where these very old law firms which conflict themselves and worked with us in the past. [up to now] nobody had managed to take them to court with evidence. Our evidence is very clear and it is so unfortunate that the very young and upcoming lawyers look at these older and senior lawyers and this is what they are teaching them. It is basically greed, nothing else and there is no ethics with these law firms anymore…a lot more is coming and they will be exposed." Sudhir said.
Sebalu and Lule Advocates has not yet responded to the court ruling as none of the officials could be reached by the time of filing the story.
Sebalu and Lule Advocates has not yet responded to the court ruling as none of the officials could be reached by the time of filing the story.