The Commercial Court in Kampala on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a case between business kingpin Sudhir Ruparelia and law firm, Sebalu and Lule Advocates.
The ‘conflict of interest’ case has been adjourned until March 1st, 2019. The hearing of the case was set for Wednesday, February 20th however, Justice Wangutusi was absent.
According to the court registry, the trial judge is sick and unable to preside over the hearing of this case.
Dr. Sudhir filed a lawsuit in December 2019 in the Commercial Court pointing out that Sebalu and Lule Advocates were unfit to represent Bank of Uganda (BoU) and DFCU bank because they once represented Crane Management Services which owned Crane Bank in several court cases.
“In view of the advocate-client relationship between the applicant (Crane Management Services sued dfcu bank) and the 1st respondent (Sebalu & Lule advocates), the latter’s continued participation as defence counsel for the 2nd respondent (dfcu bank) herein, which is the defendant in High Court Civil Suit (HCCS) No. 109/2018 against the applicant/plaintiff, is prejudicial to the applicant’s head suit,” reads his suit in part.
Sudhir demands that the judge issues out a permanent injunction on Sebalu and Lule Law Firm banning them from appearing before the court as the shielding units for dfcu bank, and the other court cases that Crane Management Services and dfcu are engaged in.
Sebalu & Lule Co. Advocates is currently representing DFCU Bank in a series of multi-billion cases before the commercial court, where businessman Sudhir through his companies has sued the bank for illegal possession/ trespass on his properties and breach of contract. The cases are in relation to DFCU’s takeover of Crane Bank.
Sudhir’s Crane Management Services argues that the law firm worked for them previously and has a lot of confidential information that could jeopardise their case if they continue representing DFCU. They want a permanent injunction against their participation in the case as defence counsel to DFCU Bank.
Sudhir has already won another conflict of interest case in the same court after Justice Wangutusi ruled that MMAKS Advocates and AF Mpanga Advocates who had been Sudhir’s lawyers for over a decade could not represent Bank of Uganda against him.
