MASUDI ALLY v CHIKU MASUDI 1992 TLR 50 (HC)

 

MASUDI ALLY v CHIKU MASUDI 1992 TLR 50 (HC)

Court High Court of Tanzania - Tabora

Judge Korosso J

10 April 1992

Flynote

Customary Law - Inheritance - Rights of children to inherit parent's property. G

-Headnote

This is an appeal by the appellant challenging the decision of Kigoma District Court

which rejected his claim for a right to inherit from a deceased person who was not his

H relative.

Held: Under customary law only children of the deceased have the right to inherit

from their deceased's parents property.

Case Information

Appeal dismissed. I

1992 TLR p51

[zJDz]Judgment

Korosso, J.: This is an appeal lodged by the Appellant challenging the decision of A

the Kigoma District Court which reversed the decision of the Ujiji Urban Primary

Court.

The Appellant was neither the son nor the relative of the Respondent's late father

who exclusively owned the disputed residential house in Tabora Municipality. B

According to the para 26 of the Second Schedule of Declared Customary Law G/N

436/63, it is the children - them alone - of the Deceased that are customarily entitled

to inherit the entire property, (without exception), of their late father. The appellant

having been a complete stranger to the family of the Respondent's late father, he is

equally a C stranger to the property of the Respondent's late father.

As it were true that the Respondent's late father had ever inherited the property of

the Appellant's late father in 1956 when his father died, the Appellant would

naturally have D sued the Respondent's late father during his lifetime until in 1990

when he passed away. Seeing that the Respondent's father is no longer with us, he

decided to test the wisdom of courts of law.

On the foregone grounds, I dismiss the appeal in total with costs. E

Appeal dismissed.

F