Legal

Employee theft has been a headache for employers from the dawn of history, and no business should ignore the dangers it poses, particularly if your business handles third-party high value goods. Your chances of being sued if one of your employees steals a customer’s asset/s are high, the reason being of course the concept of “vicarious liability” – the legal rule that can make you generally liable for your employee’s actions. Your best defence (other naturally than taking steps to stop light-fingered employees from stealing in the first place!) is the “exemption” or “disclaimer” clause. It can present a formidable…

Your will (“Last Will and Testament”) will always be the keystone of your estate planning, and a recent High Court decision sounds yet another warning to beware the “do your own will” concept. By not having his will drawn by a professional, a father inadvertently caused one of his children to be disqualified from inheriting her intended share, whilst her husband was disqualified from being appointed as executor. Who is disqualified from inheriting? Our law, in the form of the Wills Act, provides that no one (or their spouse) can receive “any benefit” under a will if – They signed…

A recent High Court decision saw both a sectional title unit owner and his cupboard contractor held liable for damages suffered by an 11-year-old boy electrocuted by a communal tap. The complex’s body corporate and an electrician were also sued but escaped liability. The reasons given by the Court for these contrasting outcomes provide valuable lessons for property owners, contractors, and bodies corporate. Electrocuted when he turned on a tap You don’t expect to be electrocuted when you turn on a tap, but that is what happened to an unfortunate boy, aged 11, who had offered to wash his mother’s…

What happens if your life partner dies without leaving you anything in their will (“Last Will and Testament”)? Do you have the same protections as married spouses do? A lot of the media coverage around the recent Constitutional Court decision dealing with this question may have given the impression that life partners are now as fully protected as if they were in a formal marriage, but that is not so – not yet anyway. First, some background. Protections for surviving spouses only, not for unmarried life partners As a starting point, note that the widely-believed and persistent myth of a…

The Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns and restrictions have impacted negatively on many businesses, and there has been much uncertainty as to whether commercial tenants of leased property are entitled to claim a remission of rental if their trading activities are curtailed. A recent High Court decision of Trustees for the time being of the Bymyam Trust v Butcher Shop and Grill CC (11877/2020) [2021] ZAWCHC 240 throws some light on this knotty question, and with the pandemic showing no signs of letting up, all commercial landlords and their tenants should be aware of it. The steakhouse closed by lockdown regulations The…

When company directors are locked in dispute, one of them may be tempted to cut off the other’s access to emails and to the business server – a tactic likely to have immediate and serious consequences for the director thus cut off. Its appeal as a tactic to force the other director to the negotiating table is obvious, but the question is whether the director thus deprived has any legal remedy available to force immediate restoration of access. A recent Supreme Court of Appeal matter of Blendrite (Pty) Ltd and Another v Moonisami and Another (227/2020) [2021] ZASCA 77 saw a director in…

Even if your marriage is collapsing around you, you might be afraid to sue for divorce because you have no money to survive on, plus you know that a hotly contested divorce might take years to finalise while your breadwinner spouse fights you tooth and nail every step of the way. How will you support yourself and your children until the case is finalised? How will you pay your lawyer to run the case for you? Must you wait for the end of the case before you see a cent? The answer luckily is “no” in that you have a relatively…

Employers have a strong duty to provide a safe workplace for their employees, and to protect them from harm – including sexual harassment. An employer who fails in this faces claims for damages and compensation, but as a recent Labour Court judgment shows, the victim must first follow procedure correctly, and without delay. Delayed reporting kills a claim A female employee claimed “a just and equitable compensation” from her employer after she was sexually harassed by two male superiors. Her claim failed, the Court finding that her delay in reporting the incidents to her employer (two years in one case…

The Festive Season is once more upon us, cueing shops, shopping centres and malls packed with ever-growing crowds of shoppers. What happens if you fall while shopping and hurt yourself? Our law reports are full of cases where shops are sued for damages following “slips” and “trips”, and a recent High Court case of Holtzhausen v Cenprop Real Estate (Pty) Ltd and Another (A116/20) [2021] ZAWCHC 39; [2021] 2 All SA 457 (WCC); 2021 (4) SA 221 (WCC) confirms once again that as a general rule shops and malls are liable to keep their visitors from harm. A broken elbow…