The Respondent, who was the plaintiff before the High Court
sued the Appellant for breach of agreement entered between them in 2002.
Pursuant to the said agreement, the Appellant, who carries on business of
freight and cargo handling services including clearing and forwarding in
Tanzania, was engaged by the Respondent, (who is based in Bukavu - the Democratic
Republic of Congo), as its agent in Tanzania to handle clearing and forwarding
of the Respondent’s cargo in transit, from the port of Dar es Salaam for local
market or on transit to other destinations. In September 2002, the Respondent
instructed the Appellant to handle and release from the port of Dar es Salaam
and transport a consignment of goods in three containers to Bukavu.
In the process of executing the Respondent’s instructions the
Appellant sub-contracted an agent, Home Base Limited to deal with handling,
releasing and delivery of the said goods. The containers were transported by
Tanzania Railways Corporation as arranged by the Appellant. However, upon being
delivered to the Respondent, the said three containers were found empty. Thus,
the Respondent claimed for payment of total sum of US$ 372,274 being
compensation for the value of undelivered consignment of goods, loss of profit,
damages and expenses incurred by the Respondent in pursuing and tracing the
undelivered goods.
After a full trial the judgment was delivered in favour of the
Respondent. Aggrieved, the Appellant preferred this appeal. Before proceeding
with the hearing of the appeal on merit, the Court requested the counsel for
the parties to address it on the propriety of exhibits PI - P7 heavily relied
upon by the parties and the trial court to determine the suit.