High Court Halts CoA Decision On BHC
Pini Bothoko | Monday June 24, 2019 12:26
Justice Busang ruled last week that interest payable in terms of the Court of Appeal (CoA) dated January 18, 2019 between BHC and C.P.M Architects was just simple interest and is not cumulative or to be compounded.
He was delivering a judgement in case in which C.P.M Architects is suing the corporation for the sum of more than P30 million as accrued interest for unpaid architectural services rendered. The development follows a previous decision of the CoA to have BHC’s property sold through public auction for failure to pay C.P.M Architects. The High Court order directed that the respondent had been fully paid in terms of the CoA order of January 18 this year. Hence ordered and directed that the respondent shall not execute the CoA decision against BHC.
It further interdicted the C.P.M Architects from selling by public auction BHC’s movable property on the set date pending finalisation and determination of the matter by the court.
Attorney Patrick Matlho for C.P.M Architects said they were shocked to receive a court order that interdicts them from auctioning BHC’s property. He said the temporary interdict was granted in their absence adding that BHC should have gone to CoA where there was a valid court order not the junior court.
“I do not know their theatrics with the judge because it has never happened for the lower court to stop CoA’s decision. It’s my first time to see it happening. We will however respect the court order despite that and we are not to proceed with the sale,” Matlho said.
“We have filed our papers raising our concerns on how our sale was stopped by that court order. We also want to know if High Court has the jurisdiction to interfere with Court of Appeal.”
Following a court order, Deputy Sheriff advertised a notice of sale of execution for BHC movable property to recover the money. The auction sale was set for June 28, 2019 at corporation’s premises at Gaborone West.
Reports indicate that BHC had engaged C.P.M Architects to conduct architectural service consultancy when constructing Botswana Defence Force (BDF) houses at Paje camp, but defaulted in paying the company for the services.
The matter was taken to the High Court in 2014, where the court ruled in favour of C.P.M Architects, a decision that BHC challenged at CoA.
On January 18, 2019, the parties agreed through a consent order that BHC should pay C.P.M Architects money with an interest of 1.5 percent per month as from August 2014 to the date of the payment of the balance. However, BHC failed to comply with the order.