Title IV of Law n° 22/2018 of 29/04/2018 relating to the Civil, Commercial, Labour and Administrative Procedure provides for procedures for Appeal in civil cases in Rwanda.
The ordinary procedures of Appeal include;
i. Opposition: This seeks to have a default judgement Reviewed. It is done in less than fifteen (15) days from the day on which the respondent has knowledge of the decision.
ii.Appeal: This is lodged by a person who was a party to the proceedings in the first instance.
However, the appeal against an interlocutory judgement is made only jointly with the final judgement. The time limit for lodging an appeal is one (1) month that running from the day the judgement was pronounced.
No new claim may be lodged at the appeal level, unless it concerns compensation or if the new claim constitutes a defence to the principal action before the court of appeal.
The effect of an appeal is returning a case to the situation as it was before the judgement, but only as to issues that are the subject-matter of appeal.
The Extraordinary procedures of Appeal include;
i. Third party opposition: This seeks to quash or change a judgement to the benefit of the third party appealing against it. The time limit for filing a third party opposition is two (2) months from the date that the person filing the case was notified.
A judgement rendered following a third party opposition may be subject to the same appeal procedures applicable to other judgements. A third party opposition judgement is subject to appeal only once.
ii. Case review: This is allowed only to persons who have been parties or represented to the judgement subject for review.
Article 170 lists the reasons for application of review.
A person has to apply for review within two (2) months starting from the date of the discovery of the fact giving rise to the review.
However, this time limit does not apply to persons declared incapable to sue in court during the period of their incapacity. In case of death of a party having the right to sue for review before the time allowed for its application has run, the time limit is extended by twelve (12) months in favour of his or her heirs.
Application for review is before the same court that rendered the judgement but with a judge different from the one who rendered the judgement.