Case Law[2023] ZAGPJHC 768South Africa
South African Securitisation Programme (RF) Ltd v Lucic (2022/6034) [2023] ZAGPJHC 768 (6 July 2023)
High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)
6 July 2023
Headnotes
judgment against the defendant arising from a master rental agreement concluded between the cedent, Sasfin Bank Limited (“Sasfin”) and the defendant on 28 August 2018 (“the agreement”). The plaintiff is seeking specific performance in terms of the master rental agreement and is claiming the return of the office telephonic equipment and payment in the amount of R 106 290.82, together with interest thereon at the rate of 2% per annum from 13 January 2022 to date of payment and costs on a scale as between attorney and client. I shall refer to the parties by their nomenclatures in the main action.
Judgment
begin wrapper
begin container
begin header
begin slogan-floater
end slogan-floater
- About SAFLII
About SAFLII
- Databases
Databases
- Search
Search
- Terms of Use
Terms of Use
- RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds
end header
begin main
begin center
# South Africa: South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg
South Africa: South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg
You are here:
SAFLII
>>
Databases
>>
South Africa: South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg
>>
2023
>>
[2023] ZAGPJHC 768
|
Noteup
|
LawCite
sino index
## South African Securitisation Programme (RF) Ltd v Lucic (2022/6034) [2023] ZAGPJHC 768 (6 July 2023)
South African Securitisation Programme (RF) Ltd v Lucic (2022/6034) [2023] ZAGPJHC 768 (6 July 2023)
Download original files
PDF format
RTF format
make_database: source=/home/saflii//raw/ZAGPJHC/Data/2023_768.html
sino date 6 July 2023
IN
THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA,
GAUTENG
DIVISION, JOHANNESBURG
CASE
NUMBER: 2022/6034
In
the matter between:
SOUTH
AFRICAN SECURITISATION
PROGRAMME
(RF) LTD
Plaintiff
And
DR
LUCIC, MIRJANA
Defendant
JUDGEMENT
T
LIPSHITZ AJ
The
matter was heard on 11 April 2023
Judgment
Delivered on 06 July 2023
Introduction
1.
The plaintiff is seeking summary judgment
against the defendant arising from a master rental agreement
concluded between the cedent,
Sasfin Bank Limited (“Sasfin”)
and the defendant on 28 August 2018 (“the agreement”).
The plaintiff is
seeking specific performance in terms of the master
rental agreement and is claiming the return of the office telephonic
equipment
and payment in the amount of
R
106 290.82,
together with interest
thereon at the rate of 2% per annum from 13 January 2022 to date of
payment and costs on a scale as between
attorney and client. I shall
refer to the parties by their nomenclatures in the main action.
2.
The defendant resists summary judgment on
the ground that she has
bona fide
defences to the action. She has raised
four defences in both her plea and her affidavit resisting summary
judgment, which includes:-
2.1.
A denial of the plaintiff’s
locus
standi;
2.2.
That the master rental agreement is a
credit agreement as contemplated by the National Credit Act 34 of
2005 (“NCA”)
and that the applicant failed to comply with
the provisions of the NCA;
2.3.
That the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008
(“CPA”) applies to the agreement and that she exercised
her right under
Section 14(b)(bb) of the CPA and cancelled the
agreement. The cancellation was effective by the latest 16 March
2021; after that,
the plaintiff would not be entitled to receive or
bill for further monthly instalments. Accordingly, she cannot be
found to be
in breach of the agreement or in arrears;
alternatively
2.4.
The monetary amount claimed by the
plaintiff is a penalty as envisaged by the Conventional Penalties Act
15 of 1962. The court should
reduce the penalty that the plaintiff
purports to charge the defendant to align with the principles
espoused by the CPA and NPA.
3.
The defendant, correctly so, did not
persist with the
locus standi
defence in her heads of argument or during the argument.
Legal
Principles Relating to Summary Judgment
4.
Summary
judgment has often been described as an extraordinary and drastic
remedy in that if granted, “
it
closes the door to a defendant and permits a judgment without a
trial”.
And yet, in reality, as the Supreme Court of Appeal pointed out in
Joob Joob Investments (Pty) Ltd v Stocks Mavundla Zek Joint
Venture
2009
(5) SA 1
(SCA),
“
(h)having
regard to its purpose and its proper application, summary judgment
proceedings only hold terrors and are “drastic”
for a
defendant who has no defence.
[1]
”
The court went on to say that “
The
rationale for summary judgment proceedings is impeccable. The
procedure is not intended to deprive a defendant with a triable
issue
or a sustainable defence of her/his day in court. …
[2]
”
.
The
purpose of the summary judgment procedure is to afford an innocent
plaintiff who has an unanswerable case against an elusive
defendant a
much speedier remedy than that of waiting for the conclusion of an
action. However, it must be noted that if there
are triable issues of
fact in any cause of action or if it is unclear whether there are
such triable issues, summary judgment must
be refused as to that
cause of action.
Issues
for determination
5.
The issue for determination
is whether the defendant has disclosed a
bona
fide
defence that is
good in law in accordance with the peremptory provisions of Rule
32(3) of the Uniform Rules of Court.
Plaintiff’s
Claim
6.
The
plaintiff’s claim is based on a master rental agreement
concluded between the cedent, namely, Sasfin Bank Ltd (“Sasfin”)
and the defendant, a medical practitioner, on 28 August 2018 (“the
agreement) in terms of which Sasfin financed office telephonic
equipment, which the defendant would rent for a period of 60 months
for a charge of R 2 424, 40 per month, which monthly rental
charge
would escalate by 15% annually. The monthly payment date would
be on the 25
th
of each month. Notably, the defendant does not take ownership of the
telephonic equipment at the end of the agreement; the relevance
of
this is that this agreement is not considered a lease agreement as
contemplated by the
National Credit Act 34 of 2005
[3]
7.
On or about 18 March 2019, a written
sale and transfer agreement (“the sale and Transfer Agreement”)
was concluded between
Sasfin and the plaintiff, in terms of which the
master rental agreement was sold by Sasfin to the plaintiff. Of
importance is clause
5.3 thereof, which reads as follows
:-
“
With
effect from the Effective Date and subject to compliance by the
seller and the purchaser with their respective obligations
in terms
of clause 4 and this clause 5, the seller shall have ceded all its
right, title and interest in and to, and delegated
its obligations
under each Specified Equipment Lease to the purchaser, the purchaser
shall have accepted each cession and delegation
and the purchaser
will be the full legal owner of each Specified Equipment Lease, and
will be entitled to exercise all rights in
regard to each Specified
Equipment Lease.”
8.
The plaintiff contends that the defendant
breached the agreement by failing to pay all rentals due to it in
terms of the agreement,
and, as of 12 January 2022, the defendant was
in arrears in the amount of
R 33 084,
78.
The defendant conceded that
her last payment to the plaintiff was on 25 February 2021. The
defendant, however, denies that
she breached the agreement or that
the plaintiff was entitled to charge her rental after 25 February
2021 due to her alleging that
she validly cancelled the agreement
effective 16 March 2021. This will be examined below.
9.
Clause 9 of the agreement stipulates that
should the defendant breach the agreement, the plaintiff is entitled,
in terms of the
Master Agreement, to
inter
alia
,
“
claim
immediate payment of all amounts
which
would have been payable in terms of the Master Rental Agreement until
the expiry of the rental stated in the equipment schedule,
whether
such amounts are then due for payment or not. The plaintiff is to
take possession of the goods and only return them to
the defendant on
receipt of payment of all amounts owing to it. The defendant would
not be entitled to withhold payment or make
any deductions from any
amount owing as a result of its loss of possession of the goods
.”
10.
This is the remedy which the plaintiff is
seeking to enforce. Counsel for the plaintiff strenuously argued that
this remedy amounts
to a claim for specific performance and,
accordingly, the amount claimed is not one for damages.
11.
The plaintiff has annexed a certificate of
balance to its particulars of claim which calculates the amount for
arrears and future
rentals (for the remaining duration of the
agreement period) at
R 106 290.82.
12.
The plaintiff is seeking the return of its
telephonic equipment, payment of
R106,290.
00
and ancillary relief. In paragraph
21.2 of its particulars of claim,
it
tenders the return of the telephonic equipment to the defendant for
the remainder of the initial period on full payment of the
claimed
amounts, including interest and costs.
Defendant’s
Plea read with her Affidavit Resisting Summary Judgment.
13.
In terms of the defendant’s amended
plea, which was amended after the plaintiff applied for summary
judgment, the defendant
admitted the agreement and that she took
possession of the telephonic office equipment. She further admitted
that she ceased paying
the plaintiff under the agreement on 25
February 2021.
14.
She pleaded, however, that the plaintiff
breached the agreement by increasing and decreasing the monthly
instalments at various
stages during the term of the agreement, and
it failed to charge her in accordance with the terms of the
agreement. In her affidavit
resisting summary judgment, she expanded
on this. She alleged that after she received no explanation for the
unilateral increases
in the monthly instalments, and in November
2020, she communicated with Sasfin that she was not satisfied with
the unjustified
escalations. In addition, she had discovered that the
amount she was paying before the escalations were exorbitant compared
to
her colleagues. Further to the above, she alleged that due to a
reduction in her income due to COVID-19, she could no longer afford
to comply with the terms of the agreement. In response to her
complaints and on the 24th of November 2020, she received a written
response styled settlement quotation from a company called Telelink
Opticomm (Pty) Ltd (“Telelink”), who quoted her
an amount
of R 141 146. 64 to cancel the agreement. Flabbergasted by what
she considered to be an exorbitant settlement quote,
she elected to
cancel the agreement. She further alleges that she is entitled to
cancel the agreement as the agreement is subject
to the provisions of
the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”), and as
such, she invoked Section 14(2)(b)(bb)
of the CPA.
15.
The plaintiff argued that the CPA does not
find application to this agreement on the basis that firstly, Sasfin
is not a supplier
but rather a financier of the telephonic office
equipment and secondly, that Sasfin as a bank is exempted from the
provisions of
the CPA. In the argument, counsel for the plaintiff
conceded that he would not persist with the second leg of his
argument. From
a perusal of the definitions in Section 1 of the CPA,
it is patent that the definition of a “
supplier
”
is given a broader meaning than a party who manufactures and sells
goods. A supplier is defined as “
a
person who markets any goods or services
”.
“
Services
”,
in turn, is defined as including but also not limited to “
any
banking services, or related or similar financial services
”.
Accordingly, the plaintiff as a financier in the agreement falls
within the purview of the definition of supplier under
the CPA. It
follows that the CPA is appliable to the agreement. This was
similarly so found in the decision of South African Securitisation
Programme (RF) Limited and Prelene Jaglal -
Govindpershad
(5835/2022) [2023] ZAGPJHC 728 (26 June 2023), which is on all
fours with this matter.
Cancellations
of the agreement
16.
Section 14(2) of the CPA set out as
follows:-
(2)
If a consumer agreement is for a fixed term-
(b)despite
any provision of the consumer agreement to the contrary-
(i)The consumer may
cancel that agreement-
(bb)at
any other time, by giving the
supplier
20 business days'
notice in writing
or other recorded manner and form, subject
to subsection (3) (a) and (b)
17.
Accordingly, Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the
CPA makes it plain that a consumer can cancel a fixed-term agreement
for any reason but
must do so in writing to the supplier and on 20
business days’ notice.
18.
In the defendant’s plea and her
affidavit resisting summary judgment, she set out that
she
cancelled the agreement on three occasions. These cancellations need
to be carefully considered.
19.
In her plea, she alleges that on 30
November 2020, and in writing, she informed Sasfin that she would
cancel the agreement. This
correspondence is annexed to her plea, and
the following is important:- the correspondence is addressed to
Sasfin and Telelink
and is written by her office manager, namely
Amore Smit. The relevant reference to cancellation is as
follows “
We want this contract
terminated with immediate effect”.
This
allegation is not repeated in her affidavit resisting summary
judgment (“30 November 2020 cancellation notice”).
20.
It can be gleaned from her version that she
contends that she continued using the telephonic office equipment and
making the monthly
instalment payments and does not factually cancel
the lease with immediate effect.
21.
In her affidavit resisting summary
judgment, she baldly alleges that she cancelled the agreement with
Sasfin on 16 December 2020,
which decision she communicated to
Sasfin. She does not allege whether this communication was in writing
or whether she provided
20 days’ notice (“16 December
2020 cancellation”).
22.
Lastly, she both pleads and sets out in her
affidavit resisting summary judgment that on 16 February 2021, her
attorney of record
addressed written correspondence to Sunlyn and
Telelink wherein the following was set out:-
“
We
hereby inform you that our client
wishes to terminate her agreement with
you.
All
payments made to you, in respect of the master agreement, will stop
on 25 February 2021
We
request you to immediately uplift the leased unit from our client’s
premises situated at Suit 16 Ground Floor, Parklane.”
(“16
February 2021 cancellation notice”)
23.
The defendant explains in her affidavit
resisting summary judgment that Telelink is Sasfin’s accounts
department. She
does not expressly set out how she arrives at
this conclusion. She further does not explicitly explain in her
affidavit resisting
summary judgment her reason for addressing this
correspondence to Sunlyn and Telelink or her failure to address this
correspondence
to Sasfin. From a perusal of the affidavit
resisting summary judgment, she appears to have concluded that
Telelink
is Sasfin’s accounts department as a direct result of
Telelink responding to her requests to Sasfin to cancel the agreement
by way of providing a settlement quote. She further appears to have
come to Sunlyn because she alleges that when she concluded
the master
rental agreement, she signed two agreements; one bore Sunlyn’s
name, and the other bore Sasfin’s name.
She has annexed to her
affidavit resisting summary judgement a copy of the master rental
agreement, which bears Sunlyn’s
name. The defendant states that
she does not know how these companies are related.
Has
the defendant validly cancelled the agreement?
Submissions
24.
The central argument of the plaintiff is
that for a consumer to invoke Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA, a
consumer must expressly
provide in her notice of cancellation that
she is exercising her right in terms of Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the
CPA and that she
is providing 20 business days’ notice to the
supplier. The plaintiff argues that the 30 November 2020 cancellation
notice
does not comply with what is required of a consumer to trigger
Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA and, in fact, expressly notified
the
supplier of an “
immediate
cancellation
” which she was not
entitled to do. Moreover, the 16 February 2021 cancellation
notice, similarly, was not in compliance
with the requirements for
Section 14(2)(b)(bb) in that it failed to expressly set out that she
was exercising her right in terms
of Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA.
In addition, counsel for the plaintiff argued that the consumer did
not communicate such notice
to the supplier, Sasfin, but rather to
third-party companies unrelated to Sasfin. Thus, he continued that
the purported cancellations
were null or the agreement was never
validly cancelled.
25.
The defendant's counsel argued that the
defendant provided the plaintiff with two cancellation notices.
Whilst the cancellation
notices did not expressly set out that she
was exercising her right in terms of Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA
and that she would
be giving 20 days’ notice to the plaintiff,
she
de facto
provided the plaintiff with more than 20 days’ notice, if one
has regard to both the 30 November 2020 cancellation notice
and the
16 February 2021 cancellation notice (considering the cancellation
would be effective at the latest on 16 March 2021 and
next due date
for payment on 25 March 2021). He further argued that the plaintiff’s
argument was formalistic. If regard is
had to the substance of
Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA, the defendant had complied therewith
and had validly cancelled the agreement.
Accordingly, she could not
be found to be in arrears and in addition, the plaintiff is not
entitled to seek specific performance
on a validly cancelled
agreement. The defendant’s counsel further argued that the
issue of the relationship between Sasfin
and Telelink, and/or Sunlyn
and whether her notification conveyed to these third parties
constitutes communication of the cancellation
on the supplier is an
issue for trial, especially in light of Telelink's responding to her
complaints to Sasfin with the settlement
quote and the second master
rental agreement bearing Sunlyn’s name.
26.
The issue for determination flowing from
this argument is whether Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA requires:-
26.1.
the consumer to expressly provide in its
notice of cancellation that 20 business days will be afforded to the
supplier; and
26.2.
the consumer to expressly assert that she
is exercising her right in terms of Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA.
The
interpretation of the Act and Section 14(2)(b)(bb)
27.
It
is trite that statutory provisions must be interpreted purposively
and in context. That context includes the legislative
background and the purpose for establishing the Act.
[4]
The interpretative process involves ascertaining the intention of the
legislature but considers the words used in the light
of all relevant
and admissible context, including the circumstances in which the
legislation came into being
[5]
.
It has further been held in the Endumeni decision that “
a
sensible meaning is preferred to one that leads to insensible or
unbusinesslike results”
[6]
.
28.
The
Supreme Court of Appeal in Eskom Holdings Ltd V Halstead-Cleak
2017
(1) SA 333
(SCA) interpreted the CPA with reference specifically to
Section 61 of the CPA. Its expose of the CPA, and the CPA’s
purpose
is instructive where it was held
[7]
:-
The
long title of the Act provides that it is to promote a —
'fair,
accessible and sustainable marketplace for consumer products and
services and for that purpose to establish national norms
and
standards relating to consumer protection, to provide for improved
standards of consumer information, to prohibit certain unfair
marketing and business practices, to promote responsible consumer
behaviour, to promote a consistent legislative and enforcement
framework relating to consumer transactions and agreements . . .'.
The
Green Paper discussion of the Act makes it clear that a broadspectrum
of consumers needed protection:
'Perhaps
one of the greatest pitfalls in most consumer protection laws in
South Africa, is the absence of a uniform definition of
a consumer.
This has resulted in a difficulty for enforcers to accurately
identify individuals that the State seeks to protect.
Consumers must
be defined broadly as individuals who purchase goods and services,
and mustinclude third parties who act on behalf
of the consumer. . .
.'
In
terms of the provisions of s 2(1), the Act must be interpreted in a
manner that gives effect to the purpose of the Act as set
out in s 3.
That purpose is to promote and advance the social and economic
welfare of consumers, in particular vulnerable consumers,
in South
Africa. If there is an inconsistency between the Act and any
other legislation, both Acts, to the extent that it
is possible. If
it is not possible,the provisions that extend the greater protection
to a consumer prevail over the alternative
provisions.
From
the definitions, the preamble and purpose of the Act, it is clear
that the whole tenor of the Act is to protect consumers….
The
Act must therefore be interpreted keeping in mind that its focus is
the protection of consumers.
29.
A further decision which is apposite to
consider is that of Transcend Residential Property Fund (Pty) Ltd V
Mati and others 2018(4)
SA 515 (WCC), which dealt with the
interpretation of Section 14 2(a)(ii) of the CPA wherein the
Holderness AJ found as follows:-
“
To
my mind, this reads too much into what is required in terms of the
CPA. There is no requirement, express or implied, that the
consumer
must be expressly notified of the fact that he has twenty business
days to remedy his defect. The fact of the matter is
that the letter
of cancellation was only delivered after the full 20 business days
had elapsed, and he, therefore, had the full
statutory prescribed
period within to remedy his defect .... To my mind, the applicant was
therefore entitled, in terms of section
14 of the CPA, to cancel the
agreement, and the cancellation was accordingly valid.”
30.
Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA requires a
consumer to provide written notice of cancellation to the supplier,
which must afford
the supplier 20 business days’ notice;
however, I do not find that it
is a
requirement that the notification of
cancellation must expressly set this out or must expressly set out
that the consumer is invoking
Section 14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA. In
other words, should the consumer provide written notice of the
cancellation and afford the
supplier 20 days’ notice before the
consumer acts on the cancellation, the cancellation would be
effective under Section
14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA. This is more so,
having regard to the Transcend Residential Property decision referred
to above, as Section
14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA makes it plain that the
election to invoke the cancellation is that of the consumer. The
cancellation binds
the supplier after the 20-day notice period.
Accordingly, this interpretation cannot prejudice the supplier in
contrast to
the requirement in Section 14(2)(b)(ii) of the CPA, which
requires the supplier to afford the consumer 20 business days to
remedy
its default before the cancellation can be effective. This
interpretation provides the consumer with greater protection as the
CPA requires Courts to do.
31.
Accordingly,
I find that the 30 November 2020 cancellation notice, which was
addressed to SASFIN, was a valid cancellation under
the CPA on the
basis that she clearly and unequivocally notified Sasfin of her
intention to cancel the agreement. Whilst it expressly
set out that
the cancellation would be of immediate effect, the defendant did not
act on the cancellation immediately and only
ceased making payments
to the plaintiff on 25 March 2021 (her last payment being on 25
February 2021), more than 20 business days
from date of notification.
Whilst the defendant did not tender the return of the telephonic
office equipment in the 30 November
2020 cancellation notice, the
defendant is not required to have done so
[8]
.
I am mindful that the defendant did not deal with this cancellation
in her affidavit resisting summary judgment and that such
allegations
only appear in the plea. However, I cannot close my eyes to the 30
November 2020 cancellation notice annexed to the
defendant’s
plea, especially in the context of a summary judgment application.
32.
I agree with the plaintiff’s counsel
that a cancellation must be communicated to the supplier to be
effective. This is also
patent from the provisions of Section
14(2)(b)(bb) of the CPA. The defendant could not provide, with
sufficient clarity, what the
third parties’ roles are in the
transaction and whether or not they are agents of Sasfin or the
plaintiff; however, this
information would be peculiarly in the
knowledge of the plaintiff, and the defendant cannot be criticised
for failing to deal with
this in greater particularity. Telelink’s
involvement in providing a settlement quote to the defendant and
Sunlyn’s
participation in its name appearing on a master rental
agreement creates a triable issue regarding the nature of their
involvement
in the transaction, and it will only be through evidence
that it can be determined whether they are agents of Sasfin and/or
the
plaintiff.
33.
I furthermore note that the plaintiff may
have a claim against the defendant under Section 14(3)(a)and (b) of
the CPA for a reasonable
cancellation penalty; however, this is not
the plaintiff’s case, and accordingly, I need not deal with
this.
34.
On this defence, as raised by the
defendant, I am convinced that the plaintiff has a
bona
fide
defence and a reasonable
possibility that the defence that she has advanced may succeed at
trial. Accordingly, summary judgment
must be refused. For this
reason, I intend only briefly to deal with the other defences raised.
Conventional
Penalties Act Defence
35.
In the alternative to the cancellation
defence, and in the event that it is found that the CPA is not
applicable to the agreement,
the defendant pleads that the
plaintiff’s monetary claim constitutes a penalty or
estimated
liquidated damages as contemplated by Section 3 of the Conventional
Penalties Act 15 of 1962, which she alleges is out
of proportion to
the damages suffered by the plaintiff. The defendant does not
set out by what the penalty should be reduced,
and the only
allegations relating to the disproportionality of the penalty include
in paragraph 19.2.5.1
“
The
plaintiff suffered no damages due to the alleged breach by the
defendant; alternatively, the penalty clause is out of proportion
to
the damages suffered by the plaintiff; and/or “ the claim
as pre-estimated damages is out of proportion as all of
the future
instalments are claimed by the plaintiff of which instalments were to
increase up to the alleged breach with 15% per
annum, and future
instalments were to be calculated at a rate of 15% per annum; and/or
the plaintiff received instalments for the
rental of the goods from
inception to 31st of March 2021 with increases
.”
36.
The
plaintiff’s counsel correctly argued that its claim is one for
specific performance, and as such, the Conventional Penalties
Act
finds no application. Even if I am wrong in this regard, I would
agree with the plaintiff’s counsel that the defendant
has not
established a sufficient basis for her allegations that the penalty
is disproportionate to the damages suffered by the
plaintiff in that
she has failed to quantify the extent to which the damages should be
reduced and has failed to set out sufficient
facts which she will use
to establish the extent of the abatement of the penalty which she
will seek.
[9]
37.
In addition to the above, the defendant
pleaded that:-
37.1.
the agreement is subject to the National
Credit Act 13 of 2002, with which provisions the plaintiff failed to
comply. The NCA is
not applicable to this transaction as has been
found by the Supreme Court of Appeal in the decision of Absa
Technology Finance
Solutions (Pty) Ltd V Michael’s Bid a House
CC and Another
2013 (3) SA 426
(SCA);
and
37.2.
The plaintiff lacked
locus
standi
as she had contracted with
Sasfin, not the plaintiff. As set out above, this defence was not
persisted with, and accordingly, no
more will be said in this regard.
38.
The defendant brought a conditional
counterclaim wherein she is seeking a declaratory order that the
agreement was validly cancelled
and ancillary relief, alternatively,
the amount claimed by the plaintiff as pre-estimated damages be
reduced to an amount the Court
finds reasonable in the circumstances.
I have already dealt with these issues, as these very self-same
issues form part of the
defendant’s defence.
Costs
39.
The defendants sought the costs of the
summary judgment application, including the costs of two counsels.
Where summary judgment
is refused,
the
usual course is to order costs to be in the cause of the main action.
I see no reason to deviate from the ‘normal’
rule.
40.
Consequently, I make the following order:
Order
The
application for summary judgment is dismissed with costs to be in the
cause of the main action.
T
Lipshitz AJ
Acting
Judge: Gauteng Division Johannesburg
(electronic
signature appended)
06
July 2023
Attorneys
for the Plaintiff
ODBB
Attorneys
Counsel
for the Plaintiff
J
G Botha
Attorneys
for the Defendant
Subrayan
Naidoo Attorneys
Counsel
for the Defendant
A
Berkowitz
V
Heideman
[1]
At
paragraph 33
[2]
At
paragraph 32
[3]
Absa
Technology Finance Solutions (Pty) Ltd V Michael’s Bid a House
CC and Another
2013 (3) SA 426
(SCA) at paragraphs 14, 23 and 26
[4]
Natal
Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality
2012 (4) SA 593
(SCA) paras 18-23; Cool Ideas 1186 CC v Hubbard and Another
2014 (4)
SA 474
(CC) at para 28.
[5]
Natal
Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality
2012 (4) SA 593
(SCA) paras;
Novartis
SA (Pty) Ltd v Maphil Trading (Pty) Ltd
2016
(1) SA 518
(SCA)
([2015]
ZASCA 111) para 27.
[6]
Natal
Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality
2012 (4) SA 593
(SCA) paras 18
[7]
Eskom
Holdings Ltd V Halstead-Cleak
2017 (1) SA 333
(SCA) at paragraphs
10-16
[8]
E
xtel
Industrial (Pty) Ltd v Crown Mills (Pty) Ltd
1999 (2) SA 719
(SCA)
p732
[9]
Citibank
NA V South African Branch V Paul N.O and Another
2003 (4) SA 180
(T); Company Unique Finance V Johannesburg Northern Metropolitan
Local Council
2011 (1) SA 440
(GSJ) and Absa Technology Finance
Solutions (Pty) Ltd V Leon Hattingh t/a Corner Savings Supermarket
2009 JDR 0382 (GNP)
sino noindex
make_database footer start
Similar Cases
South African Securitisation Programme (RF) Limited v Govindpershad (5835/2022) [2023] ZAGPJHC 728 (26 June 2023)
[2023] ZAGPJHC 728High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)100% similar
South African Securitisation Programme (RF) Ltd v Gqwede (576/2022) [2023] ZAGPJHC 274 (15 March 2023)
[2023] ZAGPJHC 274High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)100% similar
South African National Civil Organisation v Ramosie and Others (7016/2019) [2022] ZAGPJHC 323 (6 May 2022)
[2022] ZAGPJHC 323High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)100% similar
South African Local Authorities Pension Fund v SOS Media Productions (Pty) Ltd t/a Black Door (10870/2022) [2023] ZAGPJHC 1285 (9 November 2023)
[2023] ZAGPJHC 1285High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)100% similar
South African Petroleum Industry Association v Fuel Retailers' Association (28818/2014) [2023] ZAGPJHC 1301 (13 November 2023)
[2023] ZAGPJHC 1301High Court of South Africa (Gauteng Division, Johannesburg)100% similar