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Vehicle instalments, repossession and resale — refund, costs and oppressive recovery — Mombasa Case and Document Guide

Decision analysed: Kabagi v Farhan Motors Ltd — [2025] KEHC 19554 (KLR) — 27 November 2025

Court: High Court at Mombasa

The dispute

A purchaser paid a deposit and instalments for a vehicle intended for car hire. Police detention interrupted payment, and the seller obtained release, repossessed and sold the vehicle. The purchaser sought a refund; the seller counterclaimed purchase balance, penalties, losses and legal fees. The trial Court awarded Kshs 350,000 and dismissed the counterclaim.

What the Court decided

The High Court dismissed the purchaser costs appeal, the seller cross-appeal and the purchaser preliminary objection. It upheld the reasoned costs discretion and rejected recovery of the additional counterclaim heads after repossession as harsh in the circumstances. Each party bore its own costs.

What this decision does and does not establish

Sections 33 and 38 of the Small Claims Court Act concern costs discretion and appeals on questions of law. A contested compliance chronology is not automatically a pure preliminary objection. The source inconsistently gives Kshs 698,500 and 698,000 paid and inconsistent related-appeal references; use actual receipts, certified orders and the decree. Kshs 350,000 was the award, not the full refund claimed.

Choose a document for the procedural task

Repossession and Resale — Response to Seller Counterclaim

Use Small Claims Court rule 15 and the applicable prescribed response to a counterclaim or set-off. Answer each monetary head and supply genuine documents through the proper exchange procedure. Use rule 15 for the response to a counterclaim. Do not state the full purchaser payments were awarded: the operative trial award was Kshs 350,000.

Vehicle Instalment and Resale Credits — Disputed Account Schedule

This is an evidential or accounting aid, not an originating process or independent proof. Give dates, authors or custodians, admissibility status, actual document pages and transparent calculations. Label missing and disputed items. Obtain the applicable leave or directions for supplementary evidence, serve it and prevent duplicate credits or recovery.

Successful Purchaser Costs — Historical Memorandum of Appeal

Identify the exact lower-court judgment or ruling, operative decree, parties, concise grounds and requested disposition. Use the procedure for this particular appellate court: an ELRC appeal and a High Court or ELC first appeal are not Court of Appeal proceedings. Check limitation, any necessary leave or extension, record, fees, service and directions. Filing an appeal is not an automatic stay. Historical losing argument, expressly labelled. Costs under section 33 are discretionary; success does not guarantee reversal of a reasoned no-costs order.

Opposing Vehicle Seller Cross Appeal on Contract Recovery

Identify pleaded issues, admitted evidence and genuine record pages. Follow directions on length, authorities, filing and service. Submissions do not introduce exhibits or cure missing substantive prayers. Distinguish what a party sought from what the Court ordered, and an unsuccessful historical position from the actual holding.

Cross Appeal Timetable — Affidavit of Certified Orders and Compliance

Complete the deponent identity, authority and actual personal-knowledge or identified-information basis. Index and authenticate genuine exhibits; missing exhibits are not supplied by this text. An affidavit is evidence, not a vehicle for new unpleaded relief or invented expert conclusions. Obtain any required leave for a further affidavit and complete a valid jurat before a competent authorised person. This specimen is unsworn. Proposed evidence-based procedural correction, not an affidavit proved to have been filed in the source case. Check leave and the proper application; the historical bare preliminary objection failed.

Read the reproduced primary judicial text

Primary source and reconstruction

Read the original judgment: [2025] KEHC 19554 (KLR)

The primary judicial text, Mombasa heading, reasons and operative orders were checked. Each sample is newly drafted and uses bracketed specimen identities. Unsuccessful historical positions and proposed corrections are identified. No original filed wording, exhibits, subsequent-order assurance or licensed-advocate review is claimed. Check the authentic court file, current law and directions before use.

These documents are newly drafted educational reconstructions, not original filed pleadings or matters handled by our team. The original decision may identify participants; the specimens replace identifying details with bracketed fields. Losing positions remain marked unsuccessful. An advocate must adapt jurisdiction, evidence, prayers and procedure to the actual case.