BoB wins bid to rescind P28m default judgment

Mpho Mokwape | Wednesday March 16, 2016 15:29

BoB has had its property attached following the default judgment against them to EBC Guernsey and allegations of fraud were levelled against them after they failed to file appearance to defend.

Yesterday, Gaborone High Court judge, Justice Zein Kebonang granted the bank the rescission application. Kebonang said though the BoB and its attorneys, Collins Newman were guilty of fraud, as they had admitted, he had satisfied himself and based his judgment on the Court of Appeal (CoA) findings to rescind the application.

He said even though the applicant had tried to show that they were not “willful defaulter” and argued that they were also victims of fraud they should have taken the responsibility for the actions of their client.

“The deception must become a liability to the applicant not the court or the respondents, they knew that their attorney was at fault and now they want to be given a chance when they had compromised the integrity of the court and the judicial system,” he said.  He said the applicants had argued that due to the dishonesty by its attorney it was entitled to a fresh start but said he does not see how it was part of their defence when they had known that no appearance to defend was filed.

Kebonang explained that the applicants through an email exchange with the attorney Bokani Machinya, they had known that the appearance to defend was not filed but still they went ahead and defended it.

He maintained that in that case when granting the rescission application, he was purely looking at the merits presented before the court and what the CoA had said about similar applications, not that the applicants were not at fault.