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| Confirmation of parentage of a child |
| I am facing a bizarre situation which is likely to take my happiness away. I had an affair with a woman for a long time, a result of which she became pregnant. Unfortunately the woman passed away during delivery, luckily the child survived. After the burial, another man appeared and claimed to be the father of the newborn child and that the deceased’s pregnancy was his. I believe I was the only man to her and the one to be there for her during her delivery. Each one of us is claiming to be the father and I believe this new man has been planted there. What does the law provide in such a situation? What about the costs I incurred during the pregnancy- how can I recover those if the child turns out not to be mine? Can I get custody of the child? |
| ML, Dar |
Matters of parentage and custody of children are dealt with under the Law of the Child Act which is Act No. 21 of 2009. This Act provides for an opportunity to the child, parent of a child, guardian of a child, social welfare officer or any other interested person with special leave of the Court to make an application to the Court for an order to confirm parentage of a child. This law provides further when this application should be made. It allows this application to be made before the child is born, after death of the father or mother of a child or before the child is eighteen years old or with special leave of the Court after the child has attained eighteen years.
As for recovery of costs during pregnancy, with the child’s mother no more we are not sure who you will sue for recovery. It is very unlikely that such |
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a claim will succeed against the real father of the child but your lawyers can guide you more.
The custody question is tricky. The general spirit of the law is to ensure that the best interests of the child is taken care of. If the child is really yours, there are chances you will get custody after taking into consideration your ability to take care and raise the child, your financial situation, et al. It is known that a child can be raised better by a woman than a man and hence the presence of your mother or some lady in the family to provide guidance and support will be helpful in case a custody battle erupts. |
| My birthday, my worst day |
| I have been working with a company for the past ten years and have always been allowed to take the day off when it is my birthday. My boss changed recently and the new boss disallowed me this statutory leave of mine. This has really upset me as it is my special day as it for anyone else. What can I do about this denial of my birthday holiday rights? |
| OI, Dar |
| The answer we are about to give you will not please you. First there is nothing like birthday holiday rights under our law. If your contract specifically provides for such a holiday, then you might have a claim, but we have also never seen such a contract. However it seems to us that your birthday holiday rights were more custom based than contract based. We have never heard of any country which has such holidays. Your lawyers can guide you further as we don’t believe you have any claims on your employer. |
| Bag falls on passenger |
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I flew an airline in economy class |
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| where a man put in a very heavy bag in the overhead cabin compartment. The bag was half open as he had squeezed in perfumes bought from duty free shops. I told him about this and that he should ask the air hostess to place the bag elsewhere but he was adamant and he finally managed to push the bag into the compartment. I complained to the air hostess but she did not pay attention to my request and half way along the flight, whilst I was asleep, another man opened the compartment and two big bottles of perfumes fell on my head which resulted in bleeding. I was attended to expeditiously by a first aider and a Dr on board the flight. I want to take action- who should I sue and how? |
| PE, Dar |
There is a maximum luggage allowance, usually about 12 kgs, that a passenger is allowed to carry with him or her as hand luggage. This is mainly for security reasons including that the overhead compartments cannot take more than a certain weight.
It is quite likely that the passenger’s bag weighed more than the normal allowance and hence the airline is in breach of your air travel contract and you can sue it. Another avenue for your lawyer to explore is to sue the air hostess for her negligent response to the call you made. You could obviously also sue both the person who carried the overweight bag and the passenger who opened the overhead cabin during the flight.
The next question is where should you sue? We do not have enough detail to answer this but likely you can sue in Tanzania or the country you departed from. Obviously before suing you should consider your legal costs and the potential damages that you may recover. |
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| This column is intended to give you a general over view of
the Law. It is not a substitute
to the role of your legal advisor. If you
have legal issues, you are strongly recommended
to contact your Attorney. |
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