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Jun 12, 2008:
Pretoria - Nedbank has been granted leave to appeal against a high court judgment that found "overwhelming evidence" of fraud or collusion between the bank and joint liquidators of a property development company.
The judgment is related to the auctioning of 137 properties for a nominal value, to the prejudice of creditors of the development company.
However, a similar application by liquidators Arno Cronje and Enver Motala was rejected because they had filed late.
Judge NM Mavundla said the application by Cronje and Motala had found its way to his chambers only on May 23, outside the time frame specified in the rules of the high court.
He said the liquidators had not provided a reasonable and acceptable explanation for their default.
"Facts must be placed before the court for it to then exercise its judicial discretion," he said. "No such facts have been placed before me."
In regard to Nedbank's application, Mavundla said he did not intend to sit in review of his own judgment, but the points raised by Nedbank in regard to the judgment were arguable and of importance, not only to the parties concerned but also to general jurisprudence.
Such points included the reopening of an account already approved by the master of the high court and the awarding of costs against trustees.
Last month Mavundla ordered the reopening of the liquidation and distribution account of Waterkloofspruit Projects at the master of the high court and the appointment of new liquidators, after he had declared the dissolution of Waterkloofspruit Projects void and had ordered its restoration to the companies office register.
This judgment related to an application brought by Hillcrest Village and a family trust represented by Crystal Cooper de la Pierre and Robert de la Pierre, following a March 2001 auction where Nedbank bought the 137 vacant stands and two developed stands for about R100 000, or R750 a stand.
The applicants said the auction was a "sham", as it was not advertised in the Government Gazette as required by law and an offer of R20 million had been made for the properties.
In a separate application, the De La Pierre family is claiming more than R500 million in damages from Nedbank, Cronje and Motala, the master of the high court in Pretoria and various business people and close corporations.
