Blueline Enterprises, the Tanzanian firm locked in a legal row with the East African Development Bank (EADB), has appealed against last year’s court decision that cleared the key regional financial institution of a $137 million bill.
The petition potentially brings back a headache for EAC leaders over the future of a key regional financial institution which has been struggling to shake off the long-running legal tussle.
Gamaliel Mgongo Fimbo for Blueline Enterprises Ltd (BEL) has filed Civil Application No. 21 of 2012 in the Court of Appeal, seeking to reverse or set aside its judgment dated December 28, 2011 which exonerated EADB.
The bench consisting of Justice Edward Rutakangwa, Justice Nathalia Kimaro and Justice Salum Massati, had given its verdict to the extent that the EADB‘s absolute immunity extended to monies or cash in its account in the Standard Chartered Bank at International House Branch in Dar es Salaam, effectively saving the assets from being attached to pay BEL over the $137.9 million award.
Prof Fimbo is now accusing the Court of quashing the proceedings in Misc. Civil Cause No. 135 of 2005 of the High Court of Tanzania at Dar es Salaam on the grounds that the decision was based on a manifest error on the face of the record resulting in a miscarriage of justice.
He contended that in so doing, the court also quashed the bank’s application for leave to appeal against the ruling of Judge Augustine Shangwa of the High Court in Dar es Salaam.
Prof Fimbo presented 11 grounds for the application against the EADB. One was to the effect that the court had erred by failing to determine whether the presiding judge of the lower court had no jurisdiction to set aside the garnishee order issued on November 16, 2006.
In the second ground he alleged that the Court had erred in allowing the third ground of appeal without articulation.
It is his contention that the Court ought to have dismissed it since the garnishee order was absolute as was made on May 28, 2009, 16 days after the decision appealed against was delivered on May 12, 2009.
The series of decisions made in this case over the past decade have driven a wedge between the Tanzania court system and the established practice in the rest of EAC at a time the region is expected to be moving to converged legal standards.
The Tanzanian government has been accused of reneging on key foreign investor protection protocols by arbitrarily insisting on revising terms in deals entered in the mining, gas, aviation, telecommunications and utilities sectors.
For EADB, the battle with BEL, has been a gruelling two decade-long affair that has shackled the ability of the bank to operate and participate in big syndication club deals with the likes of PTA Bank and AfDB, continental development banks. (See: EADB will have to quit Tanzania once $137m award is enforced)