What Restitution Means When a Land Deal Falls Apart

When a land deal collapses, people often assume that the law has only one question to answer: who keeps the land? The Supreme Court decision in Biyinzika Farmers Ltd and Another v Biyinzika Enterprises Limited and Others, Civil Appeal No. 32 of 2021, [2026] UGSC 21, decided on 15 May 2026, suggests that the answer can be more careful than that. A court may refuse to recognise a land holding that the law does not allow, but it may still ask whether money paid under the failed arrangement should be returned. That is where restitution becomes important.

The case arose from a poultry business arrangement involving companies and land. The land in issue was Mailo land. Under Ugandan land law, a non citizen may generally acquire land only through a lease, and a non citizen is not allowed to acquire or hold Mailo or freehold land. The Supreme Court treated the arrangement as legally unable to place the Mailo land in the hands of the company structure in question. At the same time, money had already been paid in connection with the failed arrangement. The dispute therefore raised a practical and slightly uncomfortable question. If the land transaction cannot stand, should the person who received the money simply keep it?

The legal idea in plain language

Restitution is often explained as giving back what ought not to be kept. It does not necessarily mean that the failed contract is valid. It is also not mainly about punishing the person who received the money. The point is more basic. If one side has received money or value and keeping it would be unfair, the court may order that it be returned. In that sense, restitution is concerned with preventing unjust enrichment. It asks whether a person has been enriched at another person’s expense in circumstances where the law sees retention of that benefit as unfair.

That distinction is important in land disputes. A court may say that the law does not permit a particular person or company to hold a particular type of land. That conclusion protects the integrity of Uganda’s land tenure rules. But it does not automatically answer every financial question created by the failed transaction. Someone may have paid a deposit. Someone may have transferred money for shares or business interests linked to land. Someone may have made improvements or taken steps in reliance on the arrangement. The court may still need to decide whether one party would be unfairly enriched if no money were returned.

What the Supreme Court appears to have done

In broad terms, the Supreme Court confirmed the importance of Uganda’s land ownership limits concerning non citizens and Mailo land. It did not treat those limits as a minor formality that parties could easily work around. At the same time, the court allowed recovery of payments through restitution where refusing recovery would leave one side unfairly enriched. The value of the decision lies in how it separates two questions that are sometimes mixed together. First, can the land be lawfully held in the way the parties arranged? Second, if it cannot, what should happen to money already paid under that arrangement?

A stricter view might say that once a transaction offends land holding rules, the courts should leave the parties where they are. That approach may sound clean, but it can also produce harsh results. It may allow one party to keep a financial benefit while relying on the illegality or impossibility of the transaction to avoid giving anything back. The Biyinzika decision appears to resist that outcome. It suggests that respect for land law restrictions can sit beside a fair monetary remedy, provided the court is not using restitution to enforce the prohibited land holding itself.

Why the decision matters to ordinary people

The case matters because real land transactions are rarely neat. Families, companies, investors, farmers, and small business owners often move money before every legal detail has been checked. A buyer may trust a friend. A company may assume that registration alone gives it capacity to hold land. A director may focus on the business opportunity and only later discover that land tenure rules create a serious problem. In those situations, the legal issue is not only title. It is also the money trail, the promises made, the documents signed, and the expectations created before the deal failed.

The decision is also useful because it reminds people that due diligence is not limited to checking whether a title exists. A person should ask what type of tenure the land carries, whether it is Mailo, freehold, customary, or leasehold, and whether the intended buyer has legal capacity to hold it. Where a company is involved, the company documents, shareholding structure, resolutions, and the citizenship status relevant to land ownership may become important. These details can feel technical at the start of a transaction, but they may become decisive when money has already changed hands.

A practical reading for land and business transactions

The more cautious lesson is that land payments should be documented with unusual care. Receipts should be clear. The purpose of each payment should be recorded. Company resolutions should say what the company is approving. Correspondence should identify whether money is being paid as a deposit, purchase price, loan, investment contribution, or business settlement. When disputes reach court, vague memories are rarely as useful as dated documents. A simple receipt written at the time may carry more practical value than a long explanation given years later.

For business people, the case may also be read as a warning against informal structures that are used to get around land restrictions. A transaction may look commercially sensible, especially where investors, companies, and land based operations are involved. Yet the legal form matters. If the structure is not permitted by land law, the parties may later discover that the central bargain cannot be given effect. Restitution may help with money, but it may not rescue the land arrangement itself. That is a major difference.

Research significance for Ugandan legal education

As a research precedent, the Biyinzika decision is useful because it shows a court balancing two values that can pull in different directions. One value is respect for land ownership restrictions, especially the constitutional and statutory limits on non citizen land holding. The other value is the prevention of unjust enrichment. A legal system that cares only about the first value may produce unfair financial results. A legal system that cares only about the second may weaken land tenure rules. The case is interesting because it appears to hold both concerns together.

The plain legal lesson is therefore not that every failed land deal leads to repayment. The facts will matter. The reason for failure will matter. The parties’ conduct will matter. The documents will matter. But the case does make one thing clearer. A person may not be allowed to keep land if the law says they cannot hold that type of land. Yet that does not automatically mean the other side may keep all the money paid under the failed arrangement. Where keeping the money would be unfair, restitution may provide a remedy.

For ordinary readers, the message is fairly direct. Before paying money for land or a land linked business arrangement in Uganda, check the tenure, check capacity, check the company structure, and check whether the proposed arrangement is legally possible. If the deal later fails because the law does not allow that ownership structure, the court may still consider whether money should be returned. Restitution does not make an unlawful land holding lawful. It simply prevents one party from walking away with a benefit that, in fairness, ought not to be kept.

Source note. This article is based on the Uganda Legal Information Institute listing for Biyinzika Farmers Ltd and Another v Biyinzika Enterprises Limited and Others, Civil Appeal No. 32 of 2021, [2026] UGSC 21, decided on 15 May 2026, together with the legal background in Article 237 of the Constitution of Uganda and section 40 of the Land Act on land acquisition by non citizens. The explanation is intended for public legal education and should not replace advice from a qualified advocate on a specific land or business transaction.

Suggested citation

Ronald Serwanga, “What Restitution Means When a Land Deal Falls Apart” East Africa Legal Insight (1 June 2026).