The Appellant is appealing against the ruling and order of
the High Court of Tanzania at Dar es Salaam which struck out the suit after
sustaining a preliminary objection taken up by the Respondents that the High
Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit on account of non-reference of
the dispute to EWURA before seeking recourse to court. Central to the dispute
between the parties was the Respondents’ act of disconnecting electricity in
the Appellant’s pharmaceutical business on allegation of a fabricated tariff
debt amounting to TZS 17,491,162.67 which the Appellant was not ready to
settle.
In the said suit, the Appellant disputed the Respondents’
tariff debt and alleged that disconnection of electricity services seriously
affected his business and sought for orders that electricity supply be restored
and for payment of TZS 800,000/= as general damages, payment of specific
damages to the tune of TZS 25,000,000/= for loss of business sales and payment
of a further TZS 1,600,000,000/= as special damages for loss of customer
goodwill.
On the rival side, the suit was not slickly received as the
Respondent, in his written statement of defence, firstly; came up with a
four-point notice of preliminary objection, secondly; refuted the
Appellant’s claims and, lastly; raised a counter-claim demanding the
Appellant to settle the outstanding bill for the supplied electricity. After
hearing the parties, the learned trial judge sustained the first point of
objection and found that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter
and dismissed the suit. The Appellant was aggrieved. He therefore preferred the
present appeal.