PROMINENT Bulawayo businessman and Zimpapers board
chairperson Delma Lupepe has lost his bid to retain his property after the High
Court threw out his application for more time to service a $200 000 loan from a
local bank.
The business mogul had approached the court seeking
rescission of judgment in a matter in which Ecobank had obtained an order to
eject him after he failed to pay rentals for the property.
The property was taken over by the bank, following his
failure to service a $200 000 loan. In his court application, Lupepe had
pleaded with the court saying: “Respondent (Ecobank) herein applied for summary
judgment on December 13, 2016. Applicant (Lupepe) filed a notice of opposition
on December 29, 2016. The case was set down for hearing on July 14, 2017. I,
hereby, submit that I inadvertently and unwittingly diarised the date of
hearing as Monday July 17, 2017,” he said, adding he was not in wilful default.
But High Court judge Justice Happius Zhou, dismissed
Lupepe’s application on the basis that his matter lacked merit.
“On the prospects of success, the applicant’s (Lupepe) case
is without merit. There is a clear misunderstanding of the actio rei vindicatio
and the defences which can be set out to such an action at law. The respondent
(Ecobank) has the property registered in its name. The applicant is in
occupation of that property without the consent of the respondent. The summary
judgment proceedings were instituted to recover the property from the applicant
through the eviction proceedings,” Justice Zhou said.
“This is a case in which the need for finality in
litigation would be upheld by dismissing their application for condonation. The
court should put an end to the dispute and avoid unnecessary delay in the
administration of justice … the application be and is hereby dismissed with
costs on the attorney-client scale.”
The court also warned Lupepe’s lawyers against use of
intemperate language against other parties. Newsday
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