Yvonne Michuki has lost a bid to dismiss a Sh184 million legal bill claimed by a city law firm she fell out with while challenging the distribution of wealth left behind by her father, former Cabinet minister John Michuki.
High Court deputy registrar Grace Sitati has found that Ms Michuki did not have a contract with the firm on payment of fees as she had claimed.
Agimba & Associates Advocates has asked the deputy registrar to allow its Sh184 million claim for the work it did for her. Ms Michuki had, however, objected to the application, arguing that she had a contract on payment.
She insisted that the parties had agreed on a Sh1.9 million fee, and that she had overpaid by Sh100,000. She added that the deputy registrar has no authority to determine the dispute with Agimba & Associates because a contract had already been signed.
But the firm argued that the money Ms Michuki paid was only a deposit, which had been requested in writing. It added that a deposit request note is entirely different from a fee agreement.
Disputed bill
Ms Sitati has ruled that evidence presented suggests that the firm is right, hence the parties should file their written arguments in respect of the disputed bill.
“Unfortunately, the email dated October 23, 2018 talks of ‘deposit request note’ and not ‘final’. Even in the email dated December 5, 2018, which was not responded to by Agimba & Associates, Ms Michuki talks of the ‘fee note’ and not the ‘final fee note’. Any attempt to construe it any other way amounts to the court rewriting the deposit request note or fee note,” Ms Sitati ruled.
“The upshot of the foregoing is that there is no valid binding agreement with regards to final legal fees as required by section 45 of the Advocates Act between the parties,” she added.
The deputy registrar has given the parties 14 days to file their arguments. She will give a ruling date on February 22.
In Kenyan practice, if an advocate and client do not have a contract on payment of legal bills and they disagree, the deputy registrar is tasked with determining how much should be paid after listening to arguments from both parties.
Legal fees
In claiming legal fees, lawyers consider the value of the subject matter at the heart of the dispute, alongside the volume of work done.
Agimba & Associates has raised a similar bill for representing Ms Michuki in a separate battle for her mother’s assets, taking the total claimed by the law firm to Sh368 million.
Mr Michuki died on February 12, 2012 while undergoing treatment at Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi. His wife, Josephine Watiru Michuki, died on August 22, 2012.
In his will, the former minister asked that half his estate be left to his wife and the rest to their six children.
Ms Watiri, in her will, left her property to the children. This meant that all the family wealth was left to the six siblings. Mr Michuki’s will was to be executed by former politician Kenneth Matiba, who died on April 15, 2018.
The lastborn daughter of Mr Michuki moved to court in 2018, arguing that she can no longer work with her siblings, whom she accuses of mismanagement of family assets.
Ms Michuki has asked the courts to order for a valuation of the family assets estimated to be worth Sh30 billion, and divide them equally amongst all siblings.
Ms Michuki claims that her siblings, Anne Mutahi and Fred Chege, who were given authority to manage their parents’ estates, have through mismanagement led to accumulation of huge debts in businesses, such as the flagship Windsor Golf Hotel.
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