The Appellant appeals against the decision of the High Court
of Tanzania, at Songea, striking out Civil Case No. 4 of 2016 on two grounds,
that is, it had no jurisdiction and that the plaint had not been properly
verified. This ruling was from points of preliminary objection which had been
raised by the Respondents and argued by both parties.
In determining the first PO the learned Court, after
appreciating the meaning of the term jurisdiction and the principles that govern
determination of the same, went on to apply the principles to the case before
her and got satisfied that it is not enough for a party to state that the court
has jurisdiction but he must satisfy that that has powers to decide questions
at issue. In that regard she held that the suit is based on contract a copy of
which was annexed to the plaint and that under section 18 of the CPC the suit
was supposed to be filed in Dar es Salaam.
On the second PO the learned High Court Judge took the view that
the provisions of Order VII rule 1 (i) of the CPC are couched in mandatory
terms because of the use of the term “shall”. She noted that under paragraph 17
of the plaint the specific value of the claim is stated as being Tshs.
2,070,400,000/= however, that paragraph of the plaint that states the value had
not been verified and hence that was akin to not having the jurisdictional
paragraph. For those two reasons the High Court struck out the suit with costs,
hence this appeal.