18 June 2009
11125/08
[2009] ZAWCHC 96
McMillan
NO v Pott and Others
Ex-cricketer
forces colleagues to buy him out - 22 June
Former South African cricketer Brian McMillan has succeeded in
getting the Western Cape High Court to compel fellow shareholders
in a company he previously managed to buy out his shares held in
his family trust. Acting Judge Ashley Binns-Ward decided it was
possible to formulate a buyout order that would not be unfair to
any of the competing parties involved, even if it were true that
McMillan misappropriated funds from Tygerberg Minolta, which he
set up and managed until February last year, when the other
shareholders removed him from his position. - IOL
website
18 June 2009
A16/2009
[2009] ZAWCHC 95
Tabata
and Another v S
17 June 2009
9164/09
[2009] ZAWCHC 94
De
Vries and Others v Eden District Municipality and Others
12 June 2009
A105/09
[2009] ZAWCHC 93
Grosch
v S
4 June 2009
16123/2008
[2009] ZAWCHC 91
Claasen trading as Mostly Media v Delport trading as AD
Industrial Chemicals
4 June 2009
13044/08
[2009] ZAWCHC 85
Munnik
Basson Dagama Incorporated v Traffic Environment Services and
Technologies (Pty) Ltd
4 June 2009
16123/2008
[2009] ZAWCHC 84
Philip Claasen trading as Mostly Media v Delport trading as AD
Industrial Chemicals
1 June 2009
15427/08
[2009] ZAWCHC 81
Standard
Bank of South Africa Ltd v Hunkydory Investments 188 (Pty) Ltd and
Others
20 May 2009
16231/2008
[2009] ZAWCHC 80
Swartland Winery Ltd v Group LFE (SA) (Pty) Ltd and and
Another
Widow
takes company to court over investment - 30 May
A 69-year-old widow has brought down a multimillion-rand property
investment company in a brave fight to preserve "almost all
the money she ever had in the world". Elma Taylor, from
Franskraal in the Overberg, successfully applied for the
provisional liquidation of City Capital SA Property Holdings Ltd,
but she and more than a thousand pensioners countrywide could
still face dire financial straits. Papers before the Cape High
Court indicate that about 1 200 investors - 90 percent of whom are
pensioners - stand to lose their investments in the company which
only two months ago claimed its net value stood at around R238
million. - IOL
website
Property
syndication's troubles surface in court - 7 June
An investor has applied for the liquidation of a big South African
property syndication scheme's holding company, City Capital SA
Property Holdings, it was reported in the Weekend Argus on
Saturday. The Cape High Court has given interested parties until
July 27 to tell it why it should not grant an application by Elma
Taylor, aged 69 of Franskraal, to place it in liquidation - a move
that is allegedly not expected to be opposed by the company. City
Capital, which has been the subject of a Financial Services Board
investigation started earlier this year, had its financial
services provider licence suspended last week, reported the paper.
About R500m has allegedly been invested by mainly retired
individuals in the property syndication, which faces collapse. - Realestateweb
website
Scorpions
ruling soon? - 4 June
Businessman Hugh Glenister should know before the end of June
whether his latest court challenge to the legislation disbanding
the Scorpions would be successful. A full bench of the Western
Cape High Court heard arguments in the matter on Tuesday and
Wednesday. - iafrica
website
Scorpions
court bid questioned - 5 June
Businessman Hugh Glenister's campaign to stop the demise of the
Scorpions borders on vexatious, a full Bench of the Cape High
Court heard on Wednesday. Senior counsel Willie Duminy said
Glenister had placed before the court mounds of irrelevant
information which the three judges and others had had to read.
Duminy, along with advocate Sipokazi Poswa-Lerotholi, represent
the country's president, ministers of police (formerly safety and
security) and justice. - Mail
& Guardian website
Judge
dismisses challenge on Scorpions - 18 June
Businessman Hugh Glenister's latest attempt to save the Scorpions
has been rejected by a full bench of the Cape High Court. In a
ruling handed down on Thursday, Judge Siraj Desai said he would
give reasons later, and that no costs order was being made. - IOL
website
Credit
crunch hits Kebble beneficiary - 7 June
Slain mining magnate Brett Kebble turned him into a
multimillionaire, but nowadays former ANC Youth League member
Lunga Ncwana's home in Tokai, Cape Town, is being advertised in a
newspaper for a sale in execution in two weeks.
Deeds office records show the house was purchased in 2003 for
R4.7-million, with a R1-million bond underwritten by Nedbank.
Ncwana has previously said in court papers that he used money he
was paid by Kebble to buy the house, which is registered in the
name of the Ncwana Family Trust.
Nedbank and the City of Cape Town are not the only creditors
wanting money from Ncwana.
Christopher Brand, who is acting on behalf of Kebble's estate
trustees, said there were three matters pending against Ncwana,
his mother, Nora Zine Ncwana, and the Ncwana Family Trust. It is
alleged that Kebble paid the money to Ncwana, either directly or
via third parties, when he was insolvent. In 2007, the trustees
brought a separate Western Cape High Court application to recover
money from Ncwana, Songezo Mjongile, a former member of the ANC
Youth League and Fikza Investment Holdings, run by former minister
of social development Zola Skweyiya's wife, Thuthukile. - The
Times website
Steps
to prevent billboard abuse - 11 June
The City of Cape Town has applied to the Cape High Court for an
order compelling a leading signage company, Independent Outdoor
Media, to remove, at its own cost, nine billboards erected on
buildings in contravention of the Municipality’s Outdoor
Advertising and Signage By-Law. The City has, in addition, cited
the owners of the buildings on which the billboards have been
erected as respondents in the application, and requested the Court
to grant the same removal order against them. - Cape
Business News website
Baroness
von Bad Debt - 20 June
Victor and Alexandra von Maltzahn lived the high life since moving
to South Africa 10 years ago. Descended from wealthy European
families, the couple assumed the titles baron and baroness and
hosted lavish parties at their antique-filled home, Constantia
Heights, in Cape Town, hobnobbing with neighbour Mark Thatcher and
his mom, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. But
things do not look so rosy anymore. The baroness appears to have
"gone to ground", according to Standard Bank, which is
pursuing an application in the Western Cape High Court to extract
about R45-million from the couple, excluding interest. Last week,
a number of creditors joined forces in an effort to get their
money from the Von Maltzahns, and a provisional sequestration
order was granted. - The
Times website
Lotto
winner admits helping dispose of body - 24 June
Former Lotto winner Jason "Pang" Canterbury denies
conspiring to have a man who allegedly sold drugs for him murdered
on his property, but admits to helping dispose of the body. Canterbury's
advocate, Pete Mihalik, applied for his discharge in the Western
Cape High Court on counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder
and the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition after the
State closed its case against him and his fellow accused on
Tuesday. - IOL
website
Police
probe judge's death - 10 June
Cape Town police launched a murder investigation yesterday after
the body of acting Judge Patrick Maqubela was found in his Sea
Point apartment wrapped in a sheet with a bloody pillow covering
his face. Maqubela, 60, a former Robben Island detainee, worked as
an advocate in Johannesburg when he was asked to serve as an
acting judge on the Cape bench last year. At the time of his
death, he was presiding over an application by the City of Cape
Town to evict xenophobia victims from the Blue Waters camp. - The
Times website
Maqubela
probe at 'a sensitive stage' - 11 June
IOL
website
Judge
may have been poisoned - 11 June
News24
website
Judge
'murdered by someone very close to him' - 22 June
Relatives of Judge Ntobeko Maqubela, who was found dead two weeks
ago, say they believe he was murdered by "someone very close
to him". Family members are convinced that because of the
tight security at the judge’s home in Bantry Bay, Cape Town,
those who accessed it needed permission from within. So whoever
killed him was someone who knew him very well, they reason. - Sowetan
website
Fidentia Case
Fidentia
curators probe 'significant entity' - 22 June
Fidentia's curators have been probing a deal involving "a
significant entity in the financial services industry",
according to a report made public on Monday. In the report, dated
March 10, curators Dines Gihwala and George Papadakis detailed how
they had recovered, or had firm agreements on, about R160-million
of Fidentia cash. They also listed a number of assets that still
had to be sold, including the Sante Winelands Hotel and Spa at
Franschoek, and Fidentia's former headquarters in Cape Town's
Century City, for which they are seeking more than R53-million. - IOL
website
Fidentia
: more criminal charges? - 23 June
More criminal charges are expected to be added to the list of
embezzlement allegations in the multimillion-rand Fidentia scandal
as curators probe two substantial transactions linked to the
company. - IOL
website
Road Accident
Fund Case
| Blow to Road Accident Fund
June 11 2009 16:02
Cape Town
- The
Cape
High Court
on Thursday stopped the Road Accident Fund (RAF) from
implementing a new system in which claims were to be settled
with road crash victims directly, instead of through their
attorneys.
Judge Denis van Reenen
granted a final interdict against the RAF, confirming an
interim interdict granted last August by the
Western Cape
's acting judge President Jeanette Traverso.
The final interdict brought
to an end an urgent application launched by the Law Society
of SA, the SA Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and
road accident victim Luvuyo Mbele.
The purpose of the
proceedings was to stop the RAF implementing the new Direct
Payment System (DPS), and to declare invalid an RAF
administrative decision to implement the DPS.
It transpired in Thursday's
proceedings that despite the interim interdict granted in
August last year, the RAF had secretly persisted with the
DPS, encouraging RAF claimants to end the mandates of their
respective attorneys, so as to receive settlement of their
claims directly.
Senior counsel Jeremy
Gauntlett, representing the law society, described the
actions of the RAF as "grotesque and a disgrace".
- Sapa
Supplied by LSSA |
"Grotesque"
RAF stopped by High Court action - 11 June
Judge Denis van Reenen granted a final interdict against the RAF,
confirming an interim interdict granted last August by the Western
Cape's Acting Judge President Jeanette Traverso. The final
interdict brought to an end an urgent application launched by the
Law Society of SA, the SA Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
and road accident victim Luvuyo Mbele. The purpose of the
proceedings was to stop the RAF implementing the new Direct
Payment System (DPS), and to declare invalid an RAF administrative
decision to implement the DPS. - Business
Day website
Law
Society turns to High Court - 11 June
The Law Society of SA will on Thursday ask the Western Cape
High Court to set aside the "direct payment system"
imposed last year by the Road Accident Fund. - IOL
website
|
Press
release : 10 May 2009
Law
Society to Pursue Final Court Order Against Road Accident Fund
'Direct Payment System' Which Deprives Road Accident Victims of
Legal Representation to Obtain Reasonable Compensation from RAF
Tomorrow
the Western Cape High Court,
Cape Town
, will be asked by the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) to set
aside the 'direct payment system' imposed last year by the Road
Accident Fund (RAF).
The
case is the sequel to a successful urgent application by the
LSSA last August suspending the operation of the direct payment
system until the present case could be brought. Acting Judge
President Traverso granted the LSSA, a paraplegic road accident
victim, Mr Luvoyo Mbele, and the South African Association of
Personal Injury Lawyers an urgent interdict against the RAF,
with a punitive costs order, in view of its conduct in the case.
Last
week the RAF – having failed to file any opposing argument –
wrote to the LSSA asserting that, because the RAF now intended
to publish in the media a notice withdrawing its decision to
impose the 'direct payment system', and was offering to pay the
three applicants' costs (again on a punitive scale), the court
challenge had become 'moot'.
In
response the LSSA has accepted the costs tender but disputed
that the legal challenge is moot : there is no proof that the
RAF Board has yet taken a proper decision to undo its decisions
to adopt and then implement the direct payment system, and in
the past it has acted with such irregularity and against the
public good, that a final court order against it is in any event
necessary.
The
attack by the LSSA on the RAF's decision is on both procedural
and substantive grounds. In short, the LSSA argues that the RAF
acted irregularly in taking its decision on 30 October 2007
affecting tens of thousands of road accident victims and legal
practitioners without proper notice to them, and then keeping
this secret until it announced the implementation of the system
on a week's notice in July last year. Substantively, the LSSA
argues, the direct payment system is in clear breach of
constitutional rights and is irrational and unreasonable. It is
designed to ensure that road accident victims – many the most
vulnerable members of society – will not, in the result, have
effective legal representation in their battles to achieve
compensation from the RAF.
The
LSSA's full heads of argument can be downloaded from :
http://raf.lssa.org.za/Documents/DirectPaymentSystem/tabid/63/Default.aspx
For further
information, please contact Ms Jacqui Sohn, Chairperson of the
Law Society's Road Accident Fund Committee, at (021) 424 2638.
Issued
on behalf of the Co-Chairpersons of the Law Society of South
Africa by :
Barbara Whittle
Communication Manager, Law Society of South Africa
Telephone : 012-366 8800 or 083-380 1307
E-mail : barbara@lssa.org.za
Website: www.lssa.org.za
|