Court orders car dealer to pay city lawyer Ksh.55K for breach of Mercedes sale

The court further has ordered Crotons Motors to pay lawyer Shadrack Wambui the costs of the suit and interest. 

Crotons Motors Limited was found guilty of double-dealing and breaching the contract of the sale after it sold the Mercedez Benz to another buyer after receiving a deposit of Ksh.200,000 from Wambui. The money will continue to attract interest until the day the damages are paid in full.

“The claim is therefore quantifiable as it was a loss emanating from a breach of contract which resulted in the cancellation of the same,” the court ruled.

Further, the court noted that there was indeed a contractual relationship between the lawyer and the car dealer which had been fulfilled before the cancellation of the same for want of another buyer having purchased the said car.

Wambui told the court that he deposited Ksh.200,000 on August 5, 2023, in the Croton Motors Equity bank account after paying for expensive and in-depth consultations with two Mercedes Benz experts and conducting background checks with the help of another independent car dealer at a significant cost for the service.

He asserts that the Ksh.1.7 million remaining on the sale was to be paid after the parties reached a tripartite agreement.

He claims, however, that Croton Motors called him eight hours later and unilaterally decided to cancel the sale of the vehicle, saying that another buyer had deposited it through RTGS two minutes before him.

“THAT at around 1900 hours the 1st Respondent reimbursed the Applicant the 200,000 shillings signifying the cancellation of the oral agreement for the sale ignoring that the applicant had incurred so many costs totaling 113,842 shillings being monies paid to the two experts engaged to offer their professional opinion sought to diagnose the vehicle, inspect it, and approve its fitness for purpose costs for the search and due diligence conducted prior to the making of the deposit made and transactional costs incurred by the applicant," reads court papers.