Q&A – 15 November 2010
Peeping into my apartment
I have been living in a national housing property for the past 15 years in the city centre. Recently a ten storey hotel has cropped up right next door to our block. There is one particular room in the hotel that is occupied by the hotel manager and his family, and whose window is always open. They can literally see me through my window when I am changing. Is this not illegal? How can I stop them from doing this? What are my rights?
CV, Dar
First and foremost there is no law that can prevent the hotel manager from opening and keeping open his window. We are not sure if you are asking about the legality of the hotel managers’ family looking through your window or the hotel being constructed next to your building. Either way it is very unlikely that a Court will support you in an application to stop the manager from keeping his window open.
The building was surely constructed with a valid building permit and all factors, including the distance between one building to another, are taken into account when granting a building permit. You need to consult your attorneys to see if there are any other grounds that you’ve not mentioned that you can use against the hotel owner and/or management of the hotel.
We wish to also point out that normally when changing, one would close their curtains. You might want to consider doing that as that will surely block the incoming view.
Mother dead, father rich
My mother was a rich and famous businesswoman in Mwanza who recently died. My father, with whom she did not get along very well, has produced a Will whereby to our utmost surprise she has given him more than we would have expected- he is now a rich man. How do we go about Will?
At the bottom of the Will, my mother has signed as a testator of the Will. Is that not a fatal mistake?
JJ, Mwanza
Nowhere in your question have you mentioned whether you have any other Will that your mother has made. Your question is based on mere speculation. To verify that a Will is genuine or not, you can check with the witnesses who signed on the Will. You can also get a forensic expert to look at the signature on the Will and confirm if it matches the signature of your mum. Your observation that your mum has signed as a testator as opposed to a testatrix is very interesting. However in modern English, testator has become gender-neutral, like actor, juror, prosecutor and executor. We are not convinced that a Court will be perverse enough to rule a Will invalid on the ground that a female deceased had executed her Will as testator, especially in the face of the common statutory provision that in all documents the masculine includes the feminine and vice versa. You may need legal advice and we recommend you see your Attorney.
Deaf person as witness
I am a student of law and have been attending cases in Arusha. Recently there was a case whereby the prosecution brought a witness who was deaf and dumb. Without a flicker of doubt the Judge disallowed the evidence. In fact the deaf man was the key witness as he was at the scene of the crime scene. Do you think the Judge was right? Is this not discriminatory?
GL, Arusha
The law is clear in that a person who is unable to speak may give evidence in any other manner in which he or she can make it intelligible, as by writing or signs, if such be written or made in Court. A person who is a deaf mute is not incompetent as a witness if he can be made to understand the nature of the oath, and if intelligence can be conveyed to and received from him by means of signs. He may be examined through the medium of a sworn interpreter, who understands the signs. In our opinion, if an interpreter was available we do not see why the Judge should have used his discretion, that the evidence of the witness be excluded.
Agent principal relationship
I had appointed an agent in Mbeya to deal in plastic products of our company. The relationship was very good in the first year of operations. Beginning the second year, the agent has been delaying payment, not maintaining proper accounts and lately claiming that his entire accounting system is such that he is unsure of the payables to us. How do we address this issue of him not being able to maintain proper accounts for the goods supplied by us? What should we do?
BB, Dar
It is the duty of an agent to keep accurate accounts of all his transactions and to be prepared at all times to produce them to you, his principal. If he fails to keep proper accounts every presumption consistent with the facts will weigh in favour of the principal. Thus if the agent has improperly mixed your property with his own, all that he cannot show to be his own will be presumed to belong to you. Further the normal agency agreements provide that all books and documents relating to the principal’s business must on demand be produced to the principal, or to some person named by the principal.
In your instance you may proceed to terminate the agency agreement based on the termination clause. However you may have to weigh in both the commercial and legal consequences of taking that course of action.