The Court of Appeal held that since the applicant's original suit in the superior court was hopelessly out of time, granting leave to appeal as a pauper would serve no practical purpose. The court agreed with the earlier finding by Gicheru JA that the application was incompetent due to the lapse of the statutory period for instituting the original suit. Consequently, the application for leave to proceed as a pauper was dismissed for lack of merit.