Dead wife could not have witnessed summons being served by the Sheriff, the court found in ordering a bank to return a man's repossessed vehicle.
Nedbank must return a repossessed Nissan Navara after the owner claimed he knew nothing about the pending legal action, while the Sheriff claimed the court documents were served on him in the presence of his wife - who turned out to have died a decade earlier.
Following this bungling of the legal proceedings, the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg overturned the earlier default judgment and ordered the bank to this time serve summons on the owner in terms of the court rules.
Refilwe Paul Mokhwesana earlier concluded a sale agreement with Nedbank for the purchase of a 2021 Nissan Navara. Mokhwesana was required to make monthly installment payments into Nedbank’s account. Nedbank claimed that he had fallen in arrears with his payments and in March last year obtained default judgment against him.
In terms of the judgment, the purchase agreement was cancelled and Mokhwesana (in his absence) was ordered to return the vehicle. Following investigations, it had emerged that Mokhwesana’s account had fallen in arrears due to a fraudulent debt reviewing listing. This halted debit orders, but the payments later resumed after the fraud was discovered. Nedbank, nevertheless, obtained default judgment against him.
