Sudhir's hotels sued over invasion of privacy

Business mogul, Sudhir Ruparelia's hotels have been dragged to court for using an employees' photograph to promote their products without her consent.

The hotels in question are Common Wealth Resort Munyonyo, Kabira country club, Speke hotel, Tourist hotel and Speke resort.

In her suit, Benadette Aanyu stated that while employed as a guest relations officer at common wealth resort Munyonyo in November 2007, she was approached by a photographer commissioned by the hotel to take photos of her, with a reason that it will be used for a private purpose in letters welcoming the visiting heads of states for the common wealth summit.

She said that as per what she was told, the letters were for only those heads of state who would be accommodated by the common wealth resort.

"To the plaintiff's dismay and surprise she realized that her photograph was instead utilized in the 1st defendant's brochure and also in an advertisement of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th defendants company businesses at Entebbe International Airport," reads the suit.

Through Bitangaro and company advocates, Aanyu said that when she complained to the management of the hotel, they prepared a model agreement to show that she had agreed to the use of the photograph and asked her to sign it.

She allegedly refused to sign and instead tendered in her resignation on August 14, 2015 which was approved on August 17, 2015.

Aanyu stated that since then, her photograph has been used by the hotels to commercially promote their business of provision of accommodation, conference and leisure facilities and to unjustly enrich themselves at her expense.

"The defendants have infringed the plaintiff's right not to have copies of her photograph issued to the public, her right to privacy, integrity and her image rights. She has suffered loss, emotional stress, uninvited public scrutiny, damage to her public image and loss of opportunity to earn from her image rights," reads part of the suit.

Aanyu wants court to grant an injunction restraining the hotels from using her photos and order them to surrender all her photos and the negatives.

She wants an account of the profits and the commercial benefits the hotels derived from the use of her image to promote their services, and an order of payment of all sums due to her together with commercial interest from November 24, 2007 when the brochures were first printed to date.

Aanyu in her suit filed on October 6, also wants 5% royalty rights arising from the account of the profits that were derived from her photos.

The commercial court has in response served the hotels with summons to file their defence within 15 days before the hearing of the case commences.