A Tanzanian family court has nullified an agreement between executors of the estates of the late businessman Reginald Mengi and those of the properties left by his ex-wife, the late Mercy Anna Mengi, on how to distribute the former’s assets.
High Court Judge Ilvin Mugeta’s ruling followed a request for a review of a case filed by Mengi’s widow, Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe Mengi, and her twin children, Jayden and Ryan.
Ms Mengi sought the review at the Court of Appeal, seeking to overturn the High Court’s decision to set aside her husband’s will, which had handed her all the tycoon’s property.
She opposed the agreement between executors of Mengi’s properties – Abdiel Reginald Mengi and Benjamin Abraham Mengi – and Abdiel and Regina Reginald Mengi, administrators of the estate of their late mother, Mercy Anna Mengi.
Under the November 11, 2021 agreement, they were to transfer more than Sh1.23 billion from the property left by Mengi to his late wife’s property as Mengi’s expenses.
They also agreed to transfer 50 percent of Mengi’s property to Mercy Anna Mengi’s property, claiming that it was a couple’s property that deserved to be divided equally between the two.
These include properties that remained in the possession of the late Mengi after he shared properties with his divorced wife, and several others that had been classified as marital properties after the divorce, of which Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe Mengi and her children are among the heirs.
Mengi and Mercy Anna Mengi divorced on March 13, 2015, in an out-of-court agreement.
The agreement was registered the same day and several assets listed as belonging to the couple were shared between the two.
They also agreed to share the remaining matrimonial assets on or before June 15, 2015, on the condition that Mercy Anna Mengi be entitled to no more than 35 percent of the assets.
But they had not submitted the final agreement by that date, and thus the matter remained unresolved until November 21, 2018, when her death was announced. Mengi would also die on May 10, 2019.
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Judge Mugeta, in his ruling, agreed with Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe Mengi’s lawyer, Audax Vedasto Kahendaguza, that the agreement between the two sets of executors of the estate was invalid.
He said that the sixth article of the divorce agreement sets a mandatory condition for the parties to agree on the listed undivided assets of Mengi and Mercy Anna Mengihe and those that would be determined on or before June 15, 2015.
He said that the parties had not submitted any agreement regarding the assets by June 15, 2015, and that failure to do so closed the case and the Kinondoni Court had no authority to continue with the proceedings.
“So I decide that the custody or agreement of November 11, 2021 followed by the agreement document submitted by the claimants as executors of the estate of the late Reginald Mengi and Mercy Anna Mengi is invalid,” said Judge Mugeta.
He added: “I reverse the situation that caused its existence to be dismissed as invalid.”
Judge Mugeta cited the listed assets that had not been divided as including a 50.8-acre farm in USA-River in Arumeru district and a six-acre farm in Weruweru, Hai district.
Others are 315,500 shares in Bonite Bottlers Limited, 752,500 shares in IPP Limited and four shares in The Guardian Limited.
He ordered that those properties remain in the estate of Mengi according to the law.
During the hearing of the case, Mengi’s debtors were represented by lawyers Deogratias Ringia and Nakazael Lukio Tenga. BY DAILY NATION