Justice Musa Ssekaana has dimissed a civil suit that was filed against St. Peter’s SS Naalya by their former Deputy Head Teacher Odetta.
Odetta fell in an open manhole while he was chasing students around the school dormitory and got injured .
The High Court of Uganda has now ruled against his negligence claim against the school that it failed to provide a safe work environment.
Justice Ssekaana Musa dismissed Odetta’s claim stating that his actions were overly risky and that his injury resulted from his own “overzealousness emphasising that Odetta’s choice to pursue the student went beyond the standard responsibilities of a Deputy Head Teacher. He added Odetta’s conduct was “self-endangering” and not within his core responsibilities.
In the same ruling, the judge ordered St. Peter’s Senior Secondary School, Naalya to return a vehicle given as a wedding gift to Odetta. The school had taken back the gift following law suit .
Justice Ssekaana referred to video evidence showing the vehicle being presented to Odetta and his wife at their wedding reception in front of family and friends, which, in the judge’s view, confirmed the gift’s validity.
The court found that the school’s demand for the car’s return after Odetta’s lawsuit was retaliatory, akin to a “jilted lover syndrome,” and thus without legal merit.
