A Court of Appeal stripped off a woman Ksh 11 million compensation awarded by a Resident Magistrate's court.
Pelezia Salim was involved in an accident on March 7, 2012, and filed a suit against the Somoire Keen of J Keen Transporters and Somon Transporters.
Somoire Keen is the son of late politician John Keen. Somoire and the two firms were asked to pay for damages and the Resident Magistrate Christabel Agutu awarded Pelezia Ksh 11 million compensation.
In the December 2013 ruling, Pelezia was to be awarded Ksh 2 million for damages and Ksh 9.36 million for loss of future earnings and Ksh 125,336 for special damages after the accident affected her severely.
Somoire and the defendants, however, appealed the case which saw the High Court overturn the magistrate’s decision and only awarded Pelezia Ksh 2 million for damages.
High Court stated that the magistrate's court awarded a compensation fee beyond its jurisdiction as it is only limited to a Ksh 2 million fee.
Pelezia filed a suit at the Court of Appeal seeking to reverse the High Court's decision, arguing that the judge based his ruling on technicalities.
Appellate Court Judges Daniel Masinga, Patrick Kiage and Martha Koome upheld the decision by the High Court instead.
"At the date of filing the suit, the pecuniary jurisdiction of a chief magistrate was up to Ksh 7 million.
"Although the suit was filed in a chief magistrates court, the appellate advocate did not raise any objection when the suit was assigned to a resident magistrate, whose pecuniary jurisdiction was up to Ksh 2 million," the Court of Appeal ruled.
The judges also affirmed that the Resident Magistrate was not supposed to have offered her compensation above her jurisdiction.
