[2019] KEHC 11901 (KLR)
The court found that the parties had failed to complete the administration of the estate within the statutory period and continued to engage in disputes over the management of rental income from estate properties. The application by the applicants was dismissed as it was materially similar to a previous application...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2019] KEHC 11901 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: Mary Nyathira Kimani; Applicant: Janet Wambui; Respondent: John Kimani
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nairobi (Milimani Law Courts)
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Succession Cause 941 of 2014
- Procedural Posture
- Succession Cause / Ruling on Application for Committal and Removal of Co Administrator
- Outcome
- application dismissed; grant revoked; Public Trustee appointed as administrator
- Judges
- AO Muchelule
- Legal Topics
- Administration of Estates, Grant Revocation, Beneficiary Disputes, Estate Management
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
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Parties
Mary Nyathira Kimani
Applicant
Janet Wambui
Applicant
John Kimani
Respondent
Procedural Posture
Succession Cause / Ruling on Application for Committal and Removal of Co Administrator
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the respondent wilfully disobeyed the consent orders regarding rent collection and account opening.
- 2 Whether the respondent should be committed to civil jail for contempt of court orders.
- 3 Whether the respondent should be removed as co-administrator of the estate.
Ratio Decidendi
The court found that the parties had failed to complete the administration of the estate within the statutory period and continued to engage in disputes over the management of rental income from estate properties. The application by the applicants was dismissed as it was materially similar to a previous application that had already been determined. Given the ongoing wrangles and failure to comply with statutory duties, the court exercised its discretion to revoke the grant of letters of administration previously issued to the parties and recalled the certificate of confirmation. The court ordered that a fresh grant be issued to the Public Trustee to manage and administer the estate for...
Court Disposition
application dismissed; grant revoked; Public Trustee appointed as administrator
Orders
- The applicants' application is dismissed.
- The grant issued on 24th November 2014 is revoked.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
24 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT NAIROBI
MILIMANI LAW COURTS
FAMILY DIVISION
SUCCESSION CAUSE NO. 941 OF 2014
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF MARGARET WACHUKA WAITHERA (DECEASED)
MARY NYATHIRA KIMANI...........................................1ST APPLICANT
JANET WAMBUI.............................................................2ND APPLICANT
VERSUS
JOHN KIMANI...................................................................RESPONDENT
RULING
1. The applicants Mary Nyathira Kimani and Janet Wambui and the respondent John Kimani are children of the deceased Margaret Wachuka Waithera who died intestate on 14th May 2012 at the Kenyatta National Hospital. On 24th April 2014 they petitioned for the grant of letters of administration. The joint grant was issued to them on 24th November 2014, and confirmed on 21st June 2016. The estate comprised several properties each of which the parties and the family of their late brother Joseph Kinyua were to share equally. However, their dispute relates to the management of rent from Nairobi/Block 114/159 and Nairobi/Block 114/160. These are two of the three properties of the estate.
2. On 24th July 2018 the parties agreed to appoint an agent to be collecting the rent; to open a joint account into which the rent was to be deposited; the applicants to be receiving Kshs.66,000/= monthly from the rent; and so on. The respondent was upto the time the one collecting rent. The applicants were saying they were not benefitting from the rent.
3. An application was on 19th July 2018 made by the applicants to review the agreement. According to them, the respondent was not being cooperative. He refused to open the joint account and he was not sharing in the rent. The application was not successful.
4. On 13th June 2019 the applicants filed the present application seeking, among other things, the committal of the respondent into civil jail for wilfully disobeying the orders entered into by consent on 24th July 2018. The account had not been opened, and they blamed the respondent for not being available to come with them to the bank to open the account. They alleged that the respondent was unilaterally collecting and using the rent from the premises. They wanted the respondent to be removed as a co-administrator; he be restrained from collecting rent; an independent agent to be appointed to collect the rent; the respondent be ordered to vacate the plots; and so on.
5. The respondent opposed the application by denying the averments of the applicants. He also pointed out that the issues being raised had formed the basis of the application for review which had been dismissed by the court on 13th March 2019.
6. The application is materially similar to the application that the applicants filed on 19th July 2018 and which led to the consent that was recorded on 24th July 2017. The complaints are the same. There are accusations and counter-accusations between the applicants and the respondent in respect of the management of the rent from the two properties.
7. Once again, the grant herein was confirmed to the parties on 21st June 2016. Under section 83(g) of the Law of Succession Act (Cap. 160), the parties were to complete the administration of the estate of the deceased within six (6) months, and to produce to the court a full and accurate account of the completed administration. Each of the three properties was to be shared equally to the beneficiaries. There is no indication that that has been done. There has been no extension of the statutory six months period. Instead, the parties are wrangling over rent from two of the properties. I will dismiss the applicants’ application.
8. Instead, I revoke the grant issued on 24th November 2014, and recall the certificate of confirmation that was jointly issued to the applicants and the respondent on 21st June 2016. A fresh grant shall be issued to the Public Trustee to manage and administer the estate of the deceased for six months, following which he will apply for the confirmation of the same.
9. Each party shall be at liberty to apply.
10. I make no order as to costs.
DATED and DELIVERED at NAIROBI this 30TH OCTOBER 2019.
A.O. MUCHELULE
JUDGE