The Crane Bank Limited (CBL) complaint had previously been dismissed by the UK High Court on the grounds that it was based on Bank of Uganda operations and so constituted acts of the State of Uganda. The Court of Appeal recently ruled that some of the actions are of a commercial nature and might be punished in an English court.
CBL filed a lawsuit in English courts in December 2020, saying that the deal entailed the Bank of Uganda selling some of CBL's assets and dfcu Bank Limited (dfcu) taking on some of CBL's liabilities. The Bank of Uganda acquired Crane Bank in 2017 and transferred its assets to DFCU Bank.
To counter this, dfcu filed an application challenging the English courts' jurisdiction to hear the claim, claiming that the Bank of Uganda's (BOU) actions were an act of the State of Uganda carried out in pursuit of the BOU's constitutional and statutory powers, and that an English court should not inquire into them. The English High Court agreed, concluding that the English courts lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. Crane Bank Limited subsequently filed an appeal with the United Kingdom Court of Appeal, which heard the matter on April 3-5, 2023.
The Court of Appeal issued its decision today, holding that, while dfcu Bank, dfcu Limited, and others who challenged the UK Courts' jurisdiction to try this matter may be correct in that the English Court lacks authority to consider the claim because some of BOU's acts may be of a commercial nature and/or there may be public policy reasons why the English Court should decide the claim, this issue should not be decided at a preliminary stage through a jurisdictional challenge.
According to a legal expert in Kampala, the Court of Appeal made no decision on the underlying facts or the merits of the claim since these issues were not before the Court.
"The Appeal addressed technical legal issues raised during the preliminary stage rather than the merits of the claim." "The factual allegations will be determined by the trial judge," the expert said, adding that "under English Law, DFCU has the right to seek damages."