[2024] KEHC 3911 (KLR)
The court found that the proposed interested party's claim to the estate property was based on a sale agreement entered into with the 1st Respondent at a time when no valid grant existed, following the revocation of the grant in 2015. Any such transaction was therefore invalid and amounted to intermeddling with the...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2024] KEHC 3911 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: Abdalah Muhamed A. Kasinde; Applicant: Mariam Salim; Respondent: Antony Ngetich Seurey; Respondent: Joshua Mzee Kition; Applicant: Joseph W Githiaka
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nakuru
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Succession Cause 391 of 2010
- Procedural Posture
- Succession Cause / Ruling on Amended Summons for Review and Joinder of Interested Party
- Outcome
- application dismissed
- Judges
- SM Mohochi
- Legal Topics
- Grant Revocation, Joinder of Interested Party, Intermeddling With Estate, Sale of Estate Property, Title Disputes, Jurisdiction
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
Abdalah Muhamed A. Kasinde
Applicant
Mariam Salim
Applicant
Antony Ngetich Seurey
Respondent
Joshua Mzee Kition
Respondent
Joseph W Githiaka
Applicant
Procedural Posture
Succession Cause / Ruling on Amended Summons for Review and Joinder of Interested Party
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the proposed interested party should be joined to the succession proceedings as an interested party.
- 2 Whether the sale of estate property by a respondent without a valid grant constitutes intermeddling with the estate.
- 3 Whether the Succession Court has jurisdiction to determine disputes regarding title to estate property.
Ratio Decidendi
The court found that the proposed interested party's claim to the estate property was based on a sale agreement entered into with the 1st Respondent at a time when no valid grant existed, following the revocation of the grant in 2015. Any such transaction was therefore invalid and amounted to intermeddling with the estate, contrary to Section 45 of the Law of Succession Act. The court further held that it lacked jurisdiction to determine disputes regarding the root of title to the properties, as such matters are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Environment and Land Court. Consequently, the application for joinder and review was dismissed for lack of merit, and the succession cause...
Court Disposition
application dismissed
Orders
- The amended summons dated 21st November 2023 is dismissed.
- The application for joinder of Joseph Wamutitu Githiaka as interested party is declined.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
32 paragraphs
In re Estate of Chebande Alima (Deceased) (Succession Cause 391 of 2010) [2024] KEHC 3911 (KLR) (23 April 2024) (Ruling)
Neutral citation: [2024] KEHC 3911 (KLR)
Republic of Kenya
In the High Court at Nakuru
Succession Cause 391 of 2010
SM Mohochi, J
April 23, 2024
In The Matter Of The Estate Of Chebande Alima (Deceased
Between
Abdalah Muhamed A. Kasinde
1st Applicant
Mariam Salim
2nd Applicant
and
Antony Ngetich Seurey
1st Respondent
Joshua Mzee Kition
2nd Respondent
and
Joseph W Githiaka
Intended Interested Party
Ruling
1. Before me is an amended summons dated the 21st November 2023, for review of the orders given by the Court on 18th January 2023. The same is brought pursuant to Section 47 of the Law of Succession Act and Rule 73 of the Probate and Administration Rules seeking the following reliefs;i.Spenti(a)That the Applicant herein Joseph Wamutitu Githiaka be granted leave of the Court to join these proceedings as an interested Party.ii.That this Honourable Court be pleased to issue and order stay of implementation and execution of its orders of 18th August 2023 pending the Hearing and Determination of this Application inter-partes.iii.That this Honourable Court be pleased to set aside its orders of 18th August 2023 and all the consequential orders and that the Application dated 28th January 2016 be subjected to a fresh hearing with all parties and the Applicant being given an opportunity to be heard on.iv.That the Respondents be ordered to bear the costs of this Application.
2. The Application is further supported by the Affidavit of Joseph Wamutitu Githiaka the proposed interested party on the sole ground that; the proposed interested party is the proprietor of land parcels Nos.i.Nakuru Municipality Block 13/320. ii.(Nakuru Municipality Block 13/314. iii.Nakuru Municipality Block 13/321 as per the Sale Agreement dated 11th September 2017.
3. It is noteworthy that, the assets alleged to belong to the interested party were the only assets listed herein as the assets of the deceased when the grant was made on the 3rd November 2010, and confirmed on the 15th June 2012 to the Respondents herein. This grant was ultimately revoked on the 27th February 2015 and the situation persists.
4. This Court further reaffirmed the revocation of grant herein on the 18th of August 2023 and the situation existing herein is that no grant exists.
5. I equally note that the intended interested party alleges to have purchased the properties on the 11th September 2017 from the 1st Respondent allegedly as the inheritor of the deceased herein, during subsistence of the proceedings which would constitute intermeddling with an estate of a deceased.
6. While the interested party seeks to be heard in this succession this Court is of the considered view that the purported agreements between the proposed interested party and the 1st Respondent were entered into in the absence of a grant herein and that the same is thus not worthy of a hearing.
7. I have considered the submissions by the parties and wish to state that this is a Succession Court and any dispute on purchase or attacking the root of title of the properties of the deceased can well be ventilated before the Environment and Land Court and this Court shall not venture there.
8. I am thus not persuaded to allow the Application as the same is without merit and is accordingly dismissed.
9. For all intents and purpose this succession cause is spent in the absence of free property of the deceased.It is So Ordered.
SIGNED, DELIVERED VIRTUALLY ON TEAMS PLATFORM ON THIS 23RD APRIL 2024. ................................MOHOCHI S.MJUDGEIn the presence of: -Karanja, Advocate for Proposed Interested PartyM. E. Omwenyo, Advocate for the ApplicantsRespondents - Absent