Judgment No. SC 15/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 266/15 The respondent entered an appearance to defend and filed a plea. It was respondent’s defence that he had been wrongly cited because the transfer of his suretyship to Lazarus Nyakudya had the effect of absolving him of his duty as surety towards the appellant. After the close of pleadings, the matter was referred to a judge in chambers for the holding of a pre-trial conference. The parties agreed at the pre-trial conference that the claim should be reduced to US$40 954.15. The only issue referred to trial was whether or not the appellant accepted that the respondent was no longer bound to the appellant as a surety and coprincipal debtor whether he was properly substituted by Lazarus Nyakudya. As a consequence the focus for trial was the liability of the respondent. Both parties called witnesses in support of their positions. The respondent also called as a witness a former employee of the appellant. The court a quo made a finding that the evidence showed that by accepting a second deed of surety from Lazarus Nyakudya on 26 September 2011, the appellant had exonerated the respondent of any form of liability. It held that the correct debtor was Lazarus Nyakudya because the first deed of surety signed by the respondent was compromised by the second which was signed by Lazarus Nyakudya. In the result, the appellant’s claim was dismissed. Aggrieved by this decision, the appellant appealed to this Court on the following grounds: 1. The Learned Judge misdirected himself when he found that the Deed of Suretyship signed by the respondent on 3 July 2009 had been cancelled when in fact there was no evidence to demonstrate that the Deed of Suretyship had been cancelled. 3