In their 28-page ruling, the judges said that the basis of the legal issue is shareholding. [Photo/ markeluk.com]
The court of appeal has ruled in favour of a Kenyan national in an eight-year-old legal battle over the ownership of a small private luxury tourist beach hotel on the North Coast.In their ruling, Judges Martha Koome, Alnashir Visram, and Wanjiru Karanja unanimously agreed that Germans Jurgen Langer and Zahra Langer had used illegal channels to acquire the hotel from Mr Isaac Rudrot (Kenyan) and Steffano Uccelli (Italian).The Langers are said to have colluded with a firm known as Accredo AG to fraudulently take over the property, which is located in Malindi, following a court order from Milan, Italy. In their 28-page ruling, the judges said that the basis of the legal issue is shareholding.The court also asked the accused to pay a fee in relation to the cost incurred by the complainants“Consequently, the reversal of the orders on shareholding, which had been made in the decree, was well within the ambit of the pleadings,” the appellate judges said, as quoted by the Nation.“On the whole, therefore, we are persuaded that this appeal lacks merit and the same is hereby dismissed with costs,” they added.Accredo has sought for a court order to block the two from selling the property.They also sought for a directive to be allowed to take over the property.