[2015] KEHC 2021 (KLR)
The administrators have failed to comply fully with the court's orders of 10th October 2013. The accounts rendered are inadequate as they do not cover the entire period since their appointment in 1997, nor do they detail the utilization of collected funds. Furthermore, Joseph Ruhiu Muigai has not provided any...
Source-derived case information.
- Citation
- [2015] KEHC 2021 (KLR)
- Parties
- Applicant: Leah Wanjiru Muigai; Respondent: Joseph Ruhiu Muigai
- Court
- High Court
- Court Station
- High Court at Nairobi (Milimani Commercial Courts)
- Jurisdiction
- Kenya
- Case Number
- Succession Cause 763 of 1997
- Procedural Posture
- Succession Cause / Ruling on Compliance With Accounting Orders
- Outcome
- Administrators granted thirty days to fully comply with accounting orders; non-compliance will result in revocation of grant.
- Judges
- DN Musyoka
- Legal Topics
- Administration of Estates, Duties of Administrators, Fiduciary Duties, Accounting Obligations
- Source Language
- en
Source-derived case record
Summary, issues, holding and outcome
More case intelligence is available
Unlock the full research layer for this judgment.
Parties
Leah Wanjiru Muigai
Applicant
Joseph Ruhiu Muigai
Respondent
Procedural Posture
Succession Cause / Ruling on Compliance With Accounting Orders
Legal Issues
- 1 Whether the administrators have complied with the court's orders to render full accounts of estate income and pending litigation.
- 2 Whether the administrators have fulfilled their statutory and fiduciary duties to account for all estate assets and their utilization.
Ratio Decidendi
The administrators have failed to comply fully with the court's orders of 10th October 2013. The accounts rendered are inadequate as they do not cover the entire period since their appointment in 1997, nor do they detail the utilization of collected funds. Furthermore, Joseph Ruhiu Muigai has not provided any account or status report on pending litigation involving estate assets, as specifically ordered. The court emphasizes that accounting is a statutory and fiduciary duty of administrators, and that compliance with court orders is mandatory. The administrators are granted a final thirty-day period to render full accounts and comply with all previous orders, failing which the grant of...
Court Disposition
Administrators granted thirty days to fully comply with accounting orders; non-compliance will result in revocation of grant.
Orders
- Administrators to fully comply with orders of 10th October 2013 within thirty days.
- Matter to be mentioned on a date to be given in court for compliance.
Full Case Text
Judgment text and source record
19 paragraphs
REPUBLIC OF KENYA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT NAIROBI
SUCCESSION CAUSE NO. 763 OF 1997
IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF PETER MUIGAI RUHIU (DECEASED)
RULING
On 1st October 2013 I made the following orders on accounts:-
That both administrators shall render accounts with respect to the rents that they have collected from tenants occupying Plots No. 465’A’ and ‘B’ Ongata Rongai;
That Joseph Ruhiu Muigai shall give an account of all the court cases pending touching on any of the assets of the estate providing copies of the pleadings relating to such cases and a status report on the cases; and
That the said accounts shall be rendered within thirty (30) days of the date of this ruling.
The matter was thereafter mentioned on 14th July 2014, by which time none of the administrators had filed accounts as ordered. I thereafter fixed the matter for further mentions on 6th October 2014, 21st October 2014, 17th November 2014 and 6th February 2015.
Both sides have filed accounts in compliance with Order 2(a) of the ruling dated 10th October 2013. The account by Leah Wanjiru Muigai covers the year 2010 and January to August 2011, and was filed in court on 31st October 2014. The account by Ruhiu Muigai was filed on 31st October 2014 and covers the period April 2011 to December 2011.
With respect, these statements of accounts are inadequate. The two administrators were appointed on 16th July 1997. According to Section 80(2) of the Law of Succession Act, Cap 160, Laws of Kenya, that is the date when their appointments became effective. They are bound in law to account for all the income that the assets of the estate have generated since then. Accounting is a statutory obligation. It is a duty that the administrators cannot run away from.
Secondly, financial accounting is not limited to just what was collected as rent or revenue. It extends even to how the moneys so collected have been utilized. The administrators hold an office of trust. They are in a fiduciary position to the beneficiaries with regard to the assets. They must, as trustees, account for every single cent that comes into their hands. The accounts before me do not indicate how the moneys collected over the period stated were utilized.
There has been no compliance at all by Joseph Ruhiu Muigai with Order 2(b) of the ruling of 10th October 2013. The excuse he gave for not distributing certain assets was that there was pending litigation relating to those assets. Consequently he was ordered to give an account of those cases and their current status. The purported account filed on 31st October 2014 does not say a single word about the said cases.
Court orders are made with a view to their being complied with. There would be no point of them being made if the objective is that they are to be ignored. Parties cannot pick and choose which orders to obey or which ones to comply with. The obligation is to comply with all court orders whether the parties agree with them or consider them to be wrongful or erroneous or even “idiotic.” Failure to obey court orders no doubt has consequences.
I give the administrators in the cause thirty (30) days to fully comply with the orders of 10th October 2013. Should they choose to disregard the orders, I shall be left with no alternative but to revoke the grant made to them on 10th July 1997. The matter shall be mentioned on a date to be given in court for compliance.
DATED, SIGNED and DELIVERED at NAIROBI this 2ND DAY OF OCTOBER, 2015.
W. MUSYOKA
JUDGE