By The Weekly Vision
The management of Toyota Kenya Ltd has been caught left-footed after an appeal they had lodged in court against a ruling which had offered a Ksh. 6m compensation to former staff, the appeal was rejected through a ruling dated 11th May 2023 by Judge Linet Ndolo.
A former employee Abigael Munyinyi sued Toyota Kenya on 2nd March 2023, and the Judge delivered a ruling in Abigael’s favour ordering Toyota Kenya to pay her Ksh. 6,240,000 being 12 months’ salary in compensation for unlawful dismissal plus 1 month’s salary in lieu of notice. Toyota Kenya Ltd subsequently moved the Court through an affidavit sworn by their Counsel, George Wandati, through a Notice of Motion dated 15th March 2023, seeking orders to review, vacate and/or set aside the judgment.
Mr Wandati claimed that the Court erroneously held that by the time of writing the judgment, only the Claimant had filed final written submissions claiming that it is evident that the Court did not take into consideration critical issues of fact and law, which were raised in the Respondent’s written submissions when delivering its judgment, which if considered could, possibly have convinced the Court to reach a different conclusion; or mitigate the quantum of damages awarded, even if the Court would still have reached the same decision.
The judge however noted that failure by the Respondent to file its submissions on time cannot be visited on her or the Court. She takes the view that failure to consider the Respondent’s submissions does not warrant revision of the judgment delivered on 2nd March 2023.
In her ruling, the judge noted that the Respondent has not met the threshold for seeking a review of the judgment. She notes that the Respondent has not met the conditions set in Rule 33 of the Employment and Labour Relations Court (Procedure) Rules.
The ruling reads in part “That said, I find and hold that the Respondent’s application dated 15th March 2023 does not meet the threshold for review. The application is therefore disallowed with costs to the Claimant”.
