High Court upholds suspension of lawyer Nangumya from practice

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court has upheld the two-year suspension of a lawyer Geoffrey Nangumya from legal practice.

The panel comprising of Justices Lydia Mugambe, Musa Ssekaana and Henrietta Wolayo of the Civil Division ruled that Nangumya breached the Advocates professional code of conduct when he collected money on behalf of a client and failed to remit it.

On May 15th 2013, Emmy Tumwine bought two acres of land from Israel Bbosa Sserunkuma and Wilberforce Kiyingi at 76 million shillings along Ssemuto road.

Tumwine paid an installment of 50 million shillings and the balance was to be paid once he had carried out a search at the land registry to ascertain the authenticity of ownership of the land and received transfer forms.

However, the land purchase failed and Tumwine instructed Nangumya to recover the money he had paid, the costs and damages.

In 2014, Nangumya filed a civil suit against the owners of the land and sought the court to compel them to pay his client.

However, Tumwine decided to replace Nangumya with lawyers from M/s. Muhumuza- Kiiza Advocates and legal consultants.

It was discovered that Nangumya had recovered the 63 million shillings without Tumwine’s knowledge. This prompted Tumwine to file a complaint against Nangumya  before the law council.

However, in his defence, Nangumya said that he did not hand over the money to Tumwine because he had not paid him for the legal services.

Court heard that the law council taxed the bill and found that Nangumya was entitled to 3.1 million shillings for his services.

The council noted that although Tumwine had not paid his lawyer, Nagumya was wrong not to inform his client that he had recovered the money.

Nangumya was found guilty for professional misconduct and ordered to remit 59.9 million shillings to Tumwine. He was also suspended from practice for two years.

Nagumya then petitioned the High Court challenging the decision of the Law Council.

In their ruling on Friday, the Judges also suspended Nangumya from practice for sixteen months with effect from the date of the judgment.

They have also ordered that the money he is supposed to refund to Tumwine should attract a 28 percent interest from 2015.

This is not the first time Nangumya is being suspended from practice.

In 2009, Nangumya was suspended for six months following a complaint of alleged gross misconduct that was filed against him for illegally repossessing a bus belonging to Horizon coaches which had been confiscated by the court.

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URN