Late former Cabinet Minister John Michuki's daughter, Yvonne Michuki has suffered a setback in court after she failed to get a petition filed against her by her former lawyers, dismissed.
The law firm is claiming Ksh184 million from Yvonne for services rendered during a period she had been challenging the distribution of her late father's estate.
High Court deputy registrar Grace Sitati established that Yvonne did not have a signed contract for the services as she had earlier claimed.
Agimba & Associates Advocates sought that the court allow them to claim the Ksh184 million legal fees. Michuki's daughter had objected to the claim, arguing that she had a contract.
Yvonne insisted that she had paid the lawyers Ksh1.9 million and overpaid by Ksh100,000. She added that the deputy registrar has no authority to determine the dispute with Agimba & Associates because a contract had already been signed.
The law firm disputed her claim, stating that the money was only a deposit which was requested in writing. They explained that the deposit note is totally different from an agreement.
Sitati ruled in favour of the law firm based on the evidence provided, 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,” 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.
Sitati gave the parties 14 days to file their arguments. She will give a ruling date on February 22.
