The Respondent was a businessman engaged in selling
different agricultural products such as beans. One day, he was informed about a
customer who wanted to buy his stock of beans from his store. He received the
call about the customer while he was at Biharamulo whereas the stock was at
Karagwe. The Respondent informed his employees that the customer must pay the
money in his account before the consignment of beans could be released.
Immediately, the customer agreed to deposit the money in the account for the
transaction to be completed. On 06th October 2016, the customer drew
four cheques, of Tshs. 9,900,000/= each, in favour of the Respondent. The total
amount of money deposited was about Tshs. 39,600,000/=.
On 07th October 2016, the Respondent inquired
from CRDB Bank about his balance. At that time, the balance of the Respondent’s
account showed Tshs. 40,806,414/=. The Respondent was confident that the money
was actually deposited hence he instructed his employees to discharge the
consignment of beans to the customer. On 10th October 2016, the
Respondent went further and requested for the mini-statement which showed the
balance of Tshs. 40,803,974/=. As if that was not enough, on 11th
October 2016, the Respondent requested for the full statement which showed a
balance of Tshs. 1,191,564/=. It later became evident that when the cheques
were drawn and deposited, before they matured, the drawer blocked his account.
As a result, the collecting bank (Appellant) failed to effect the payment from
the drawer’s account which was at Equity Bank in Mwanza. The Respondent
thereafter sued the Appellant for the reimbursement of Tshs. 39,600,000/=. The
trial court condemned the Appellant to reimburse the Respondent, hence this
appeal.