Kigoma /Ujiji Municipal Council versus Nyakirang’ani & Construction Limited; Misc Commercial Cause No 239 of 2015: High Court of Tanzania (Commercial Division) at Dar es Salaam (Unreported).
- Arbitration
- Petition – Time limitation – when cause of action arises to challenge an arbitral award?
- Award – adoption of an award – one must move the court to adopt and register an award
- Time limitation –What is the period of challenging an award?.
- Local Government
- Filing fees – whether local government is a government for the purpose of payment of filing fees.
- Civil Procedure.
- Filing fees – whether Local Government is government for the purpose of payment of filing fees.
Held:-
(i) Local government is not bound to pay court fees as local government authority is part and parcel of the definition of the term government.
(ii) A party aggrieved by an arbitral award has no avenue to challenge the same through a court of law until and unless the award is filed in Court for the purposes of registration as a decree of the court. Time for challenging the same starts to run from the day the said award is filed in court for the purpose of registration and adoption of the same as a decree of the court and such filing is brought to the notice to the respondent / petitioner.
(iii) Period of limitation for filing an award procured through arbitration without intervention of the Court is six months (see paragraph 18 of part III of the Law of Limitation Act, Cap 89 of the Revised Edition, 2002). However, any application for challenging an arbitral award should be brought within 60 days from the date the filing of the award was brought to the notice of the petitioner.
(iv)A court of law being not a party to arbitral proceedings, cannot move suo motu to make an order adopting and registering the award as a decree of the court . It is upon the relevant party to move the court to make such order as it deems fit. The court in granting such order will take into consideration various factors including any intention expressed by the opposite party there and then, as well as substantive justice tenets.