Omary Lucas Kachima vs Sophia Lucas Kachima (Civil Application No. 531 of 2025) [2025] TZCA 1200 (12 November 2025)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF TANZANIA AT PAR ES SALAAM CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 531 OF 2025 OMARY LUCAS KACHIMA .................................................................. APPLICANT VERSUS SOPHIA LUCAS KACHIMA.......................... .................................... RESPONDENT (Application for seeking Extension of time to lodge a notice of appeal arising from the decision of the High Court of Tanzania at Tabora which originated from Pc Civil Appeal No. 12 of 2012 before the High Court of Tanzania at Tabora, probate Appeal No. 10 of 2010 Tabora District Court and original probate case No. 19 of 2008 Isevya Primary Court) (Kadilu. J) dated the 6th day of March, 2024 in Misc. Land Application No. 14057 of 2024 RULING lffh & I2hNovember, 2025 KITUSL J.A.: The applicant claims for a right to inherit from one Lucas James @ Kachima, now deceased, whom he alleges to have been his father. He was unsuccessful at the Primary Court, as well as at the District Court and High Court where he turned to on first and second appeal, respectively. He intends to appeal to the Court and has lodged the requisite notice of appeal. However, the applicant is stuck on obtaining extension of time within which to apply for a certificate on a point of law, which is a sine qua non //7an appeal such as the one intended by the applicant. i The applicant unsuccessfully applied to the High Court, for extension of time to apply for a certificate on point of law. That was on 25th February, 2025. This is a second bite application, as it were, preferred under rules 10 and 45A (1) (c) of the Tanzania Court of Appeal Rules, 2009 (the Rules). It is duly supported by an affidavit of the applicant. The critical period for my consideration is from 25th February, 2025 when the first application was refused by the High Court. During hearing of the application, the applicant who was virtually linked from Tabora prosecuted the application by submitting that after the judgment of the High Court he was financially impaired so he failed to apply for a certificate of law within time, and that the learned Judge who considered his first application for extension of time did not keenly subject his predicaments to scrutiny. The respondent neither filed an affidavit in reply nor entered appearance to prosecute her case. Since there was proof of service on her, hearing proceeded in her absence. From the record before me, the applicant obtained an extension of time to lodge a notice of appeal and duly lodged it on 6th March, 2024. Therefore, he took an application for extension of time to apply for a certificate on a point of law. In dismissing that application, the learned 2 Judge observed that the applicant had 60 days from 30th July, 2012 within which to apply for a certificate on point of law. With respect, I have not been able to trace the relevance of that date in these proceedings. Be it as it may, the scheme of making an application for a certificate on a point of law is governed by rule 46 (1) of the Rules which provides: "46 (1) where an application for a certificate or for leave is necessary, it shall be made after the notice o f appeal is lodged". Since the notice was lodged on 6th March, 2024 as shown earlier, the learned Judge had no basis for expecting the application for a certificate to have been filed earlier. In my view this application under rule 45A (1) (c) of the Rules was filed with 14 days of the refusal as required by that provision because it was filed on 11th March, 2025 following the High Court's refusal on 25th February 2025. The main reason advanced by the applicant for the delay is financial tightrope which he found himself in. The learned Judge dismissed this ground. Although impecuniosity is not always a good cause for delay, my sense case. The record bears witness to the fact that the applicant had to obtain an order to proceed as an forma parpen's which renders his story credent. What more could he do to demonstrate that fact? 3 In view of all this, and as the respondent did not offer a different version, I grant this application with no order as to costs. The applicant in given 60 (sixty) days from the date of the delivery of this ruling, to file an application for a certificate on point of law. DATED at DAR ES SALAAM this 10th day of November, 2025. The Ruling delivered virtually this 12th day of November, 2025 in the presence of the Applicant in person and in the absence of the Respondent and Mr. Fidelis Choka, Court Clerk, is hereby certified as a true copy of the I. P. KITUSI JUSTICE OF APPEAL R. W. CHAUNGU DEPUTY REGISTRAR COURT OF APPEAL 4