Outspoken lawyer Alexious Kamangila has asked the High Court of Malawi to transfer from Lilongwe registry to Blantyre a defamation case between him and Judge Kenan Manda.
During a pre-mediation hearing yesterday presided over by High Court Judge Simeon Mdeza, Kamangila, through his lawyer Gift-Dick Chimowa, asked the court to transfer the case to Blantyre because that is where Manda, Kamangila and their lawyers are based.
is Blantyre Registry
Chimowa said in an interview they also felt that if the case continues to be heard in Lilongwe, his client will be incurring huge economic costs for travel between the two cities.
“On the face of it, we do not see any reason why the case should be in Lilongwe when the nearest forum is the Blantyre Registry, but it all depends on the wisdom of the judge,” he said.
But in his sworn statement opposing the application, Michael Goba Chipeta, who is representing Manda in the case, said that while Manda serves as a judge at High Court of Malawi Commercial Division in Blantyre, his residential address is in Lilongwe.
On the argument that lawyers for the two parties reside in Blantyre, Chipeta said there is no legal basis for transfer of proceedings based on the residential area of parties’ legal counsel.
“The application is founded on false and flawed logic, and does not represent a bonafide use of the court’s machinery,” reads the statement.
Both Chipeta and Chimowa confirmed that Judge Mdeza has reserved his ruling on the application to a later date.
A civil case naturally starts with mediation where a judge hears the parties to see if there are any compromises and whether the matter can be settled at that stage.
If the case does not end at mediation, the matter goes to trial under a different judge.
In the case, Manda sued Kamangila for defamation over the lawyer’s Facebook posts accusing the judge of fraudulent conduct.
The matter between Kamangila and Manda started in October when the judge through Chipeta wrote the lawyer demanding K250 million in damages, an apology, and a stop of “further defamatory statements or dissemination of false information” about the judge.
In response to the demand letter, Kamangila advised the judge to sue him.
Since October, Kamangila has come under the spotlight for his resolve to fight corruption in the law profession.
