african marble company limited vs the national bank of commerce 1996 tzca 33 28 june 1996

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF TANZANIA ' AT D M ES SALAAM CIVIL APPEAL NO. 20'OF 1993 BETWEEN AFRICAN MARBLE COMPANY LIMITED ....... APPELLANT versus THE NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE ....... RESPONDENT RULING SHANGALI. DR-CA/TAXING OFFICER; In the Court of Appeal Tanzania was a Civil Appeal No. 20 of 1993 between AFRICAN MARBLE COMPANY LTD, the appellant, represented by Mr. Marando, advocate and THE NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE, respondent represented by tJoe Tanzania Legal Cooperation. This Civil appeal was filed in the H^gh Court back in 1986 as Civil case No. 1/1986. It came to end on 21st July 1995. In the final decision of the Court of appeal, the appeal was allowed with costs and the appellant, the Decree Holder filed this bill of costs against the resp«- ttdent, the Judgement Debtor. According to his bill of costs the Decree Holder is creaving for shs.10,044,000.00 which include Instruction fees* attendance charges and court fees. I shall start with the first item namely Instruction fees which is loud at shs-,10,000,000.00. In support of taat amount, the Decree Holder relied on two varied important points. First he submitt5d on the wor ; involved in preparation .../2 - 2 - of the appeal which included: (a) preparation of the record of appeal which contained two volumes; one with 143 pages and the other 130 pages. to support the appeal (b) List of authorities submitted /1>^kaaiiiwe«ifta^lrv covered more than 10 different authorities. The Decree Holder stated that all these required a serious work including stationaries, binding, photo­ copying etc. On the second point he submitted that the appeal was heard for two consecutive days due to its complexity and difficulty and several important points of law were discussed and resolved. The Decree Holder further submitted that it was due to their timeless efforts that all important legal issues typed were resolved in their favour in the 19/pages^long judge­ ment of the Court of Appeal. He also stated that even after the pronouncement of the judgement of the Court of Appeal, the matter was again referred to the High Court for the determination of the nature of the relief, entitled to the parties and award them in accordance to the judgement of the Court of Appeal i done directions. He further said, the workd£~c * time consumed, costs and efforts is proportional to Instruction fees of shs.10,000,000*00. In conclusion and in support of his application he cited the fanous case of George Mbuguzi and another vs. Mat>Lkini. A.s. 0980) TLR pg.53. ♦. ./3 - 3 - On that item the Judgement Debtor conceeded that the appeal was a difficult one but submitted that the amount to be allowed should be reasonable and in accordance with the rules. Therefore he prayed the amount of shs.10,000,000,00 to be reduced, I concun with the Decree Holder that this was a difficulty and tasking appeal which involved tense prepa­ rations.*..consumed- time and costs^. and jtaking into conside­ ration its nature and importance a fair and encouraging Instraction. fee is deserved. However, the amount prayed is a bit at the high side as submitted by the Judgement Debtor. Therefore to draw a balance I will accordingly tax off first shs-.2*0.00,-000^00 and allow shs.8,000,000.00 on tr-Li item. There was no objection from the Judgement debotor in regard to item 2, 3, and 4 which prayed for shs.6,000.00 each; being charges for attending the Court for .hearing., and judgement days* Likewise is item No.5 which prayed for shs.26,000.00 being court fees for filing the appeal. I therefore -tax item 2, 3, 4, and 5 as presented. In conclusion, I accordingly tax this bill of costs at shs.8,044,000.00. DATED at DAR ES SALa AM this 28th day of June, 1996. TAXING OFFICER