Rivalland D.S. v Geo Landscapes Ltd 2019 SCJ 300
Facts:
Mr. R sought leave to appeal against a judgment of the Intermediate Court outside the delay prescribed by law. The impugned judgment was dated 18th December 2018.
Pursuant to section 37 of the District and Intermediate Court (Civil Jurisdiction) Act, Mr. R should have, within 21 days of the date of the judgment, exclusively given notice in writing of such appeal to the clerk of the Court; the last day on which Mr. R should have done so was the 8th of January 2019.
However, it was only on the 9th of January, that is one day after the delay to appeal had lapsed that Mr. R lodged his application to seek leave to appeal outside delay.
Held:
The Court based itself on the affidavit of Mr. R to hold that the latter was nonchalant regarding compliance with the delay for lodging the appeal. However, even though there has been unreasonable delay on the part of Mr. R, the Court may in exceptional circumstances exercise its discretion to allow an appeal to proceed outside the statutory delay.
At that juncture, the Court relied on the case of Ramtohul v State [1996 SCJ 356] which provides that the Court may exercise its discretion to allow an appeal to proceed outside prescribed delay. Yet, the case should not be read out of context.
In the present case, Mr. R was outside delay by only one day and there was no objection on the other side. Additionally, the Court perused the proposed grounds of appeal and which were not frivolous in nature. The Court, in the interest of justice, exercised its discretion and held that Mr. R should be granted leave to appeal outside delay.
Case commentary:
The guiding principle, in procedures governing appeals is, as wisely summed up in Lagesse v C.I.T. [1991 MR 46], that at some stage the finality of judicial decisions should be certain and procedural requirements governing appeals from those decisions should not be disregarded so as to prolong uncertainty and the holding up of the execution of a judgment …. unless …. non-compliance is shown not to be due to acts or more frequently, the omissions of the appellant or his legal advisers.
Reference:
Civil procedure – appeal – outside delay – no objection – discretion
