There is a growing row in sorting out the estate of late businessman and socialite Genius Kadungure with his family reluctant to surrender the top-of-the range Lamborgini vehicle bequeathed to someone called “Kit Kat” in the unsigned will filed with the Master of High Court with the wrangle now leading to a family decision to contest the will.
The family have now hired their own lawyers to fight the
executor and to try and overturn the will.
If the will is regarded as invalid, then Kadungure would
have died intestate and all his estate, after debts were paid, would be
distributed according to common law, which means in his case to some members of
his family.
According to the unsigned will, accepted by the Master of
Court at the end of last year as a valid expression of how Kadungure wanted his
estate distributed in the event of his death, the vehicle now becoming the
centrepiece of the row between executor and family was bequeathed to a person
called “Kit-Kat”. Up to now, no one has produced an identity card showing that
name.
However, a man called Nomatter Zinyengere, who was a friend
to the late Kadungure, has written to the executor and the family claiming to
be “Kit Kat” and demanding immediate release of the vehicle to him.
The executor was quick to publish a notice in the Press
inviting interested parties to inspect the initial distribution account, which
does include the proposed transfer of the vehicle to Zinyengere, and submit any
objections.
The standard three weeks for such inspection were the last
three weeks of February but the Master of High Court’s office is shut down
during the level four national lockdown.
The Press notice published on February 5 this year reads:
“Notice is hereby given that the First Interim liquidation and or distribution
account in the above estate (Genius Kadungure) will lie for inspection for a
period of 21 days as from the 5th day of February 2021 at the office of the
Master of High Court, Harare. Should no objections be lodged with the Master of
High Court within the period of inspection, payments will be made in accordance
therewith . . . ”
But it appears that this distribution account, normally
filed at the Master’s office before publication of the notice, had not been
formally filed, possibly because the same office closure meant that there was
no one available to record it being handed in.
The Kadungure family is now becoming disenchanted with the
executor, saying they accepted the unsigned will and the appointment of Ms
Patricia Darangwa while not thinking fully because of their bereavement.
An executor’s role is clearly defined. They have to track
down all assets of the estate, give those owed money by the late person the
opportunity to claim any debts and find those who owed the late person money or
assets to hand those over. They then implement the desires of the late person
as expressed in the will, although the law requires the Master of the High
Court to modify these to ensure that those who were supported by the late
person continue to be supported by the estate, with a cut off point for
children, and that any surviving spouse has a lifetime right to occupy the
matrimonial home, or an agreed alternative.
This does not necessarily change the distribution of
assets, but can ensure that income and occupation rights are preserved.
Frequently families dislike, and sometimes dispute, wills
that leave assets to people or others outside the family. But once the basic
support for those entitled to financial support are sorted out, a person can
leave their property to whom they wish. The will usually names an executor, or
lays down how the executor is chosen.
Ms Darangwa reportedly authored the will and the family now
feels she pressed them to accept the will and her appointment although the late
Kadungure had not appended his signature to it.
And an executor is expected to move rapidly and finalise
all transfer of assets as quickly as possible and not leave the estate in limbo
for very long.
The family feels that the necessary verifications of the
identity of “Kit Kat” are incomplete. On January 14 this year, Shomwe
Nyakuedzwa Attorneys, on behalf of Mr Zinyengere, wrote to the executor seeking
the release of the vehicle.
“Our client is keen to have his inheritance released from
the residue of the estate and is requesting that same be done through the first
interim distribution account, a copy of which we are also requesting to
inspect.
“Furthermore, our client is willing to pay the estate
liabilities and related costs for his inheritance and to that end may you
kindly issue us an invoice for settlement,” reads the letter. A person believing
that they are the beneficiary of an asset in a will has these rights.
The Kadungure family was unhappy, prompting the executor to
issue the Press invitation for inspection of the first distribution account.
Ms Darangwa also wrote to the lawyers of the late
businessman, Venturas & Samkange, seeking assistance for the release of
other vehicles held by the police at Commercial Crimes Department.
But now the family have hired their own lawyers,
Ushewokunze Law Chambers, to contest the will, with the proposed transfer of
the vehicle being the trigger,
Soon after the death of the businessman, Ms Darangwa is
said to have met the family and influenced them to accept the will.
In their letter to Ms Darangwa, the family lawyers said:
“We are instructed that before, and in the morning of November 25 2020, you (Ms
Darangwa) unduly influenced the family to accept the ‘will’ and threatened that
if the family chose to reject the will and your executorship, they would have
tarnished your reputation as a lawyer and you were prepared to sue them and
subject the estate to unwanted delays even all the way up to the Supreme Court.
“Our further instructions are that you in the same vein,
attempted to placate the family by dangling an offer or arrangement that the
family should unanimously recommend your executorship in terms of the will and
in the aftermath of such appointment you were going to sign a special power of
attorney entitling Juliet Kadungure to administer the entire estate of the
deceased.
“We are further instructed that the family accepted the
will and recommended your appointment in terms of the will as executrix
testamentary only because you unduly influenced them to do so,” said the
family’s lawyers, .
The lawyers added that the family was contesting the
genuineness of the unsigned will presented by Ms Darangwa. “However, the
family’s suspicion around the authenticity of the will remains difficult to
oust.
“The family has always had, and still has, unanswered
questions regarding the said will…
“We must mention that the dissatisfaction and anxiety over
the genuineness or origin of the will, coupled with a recollection of diverse
events antecedent to the demise of the deceased, all culminated in the family’s
resort to getting legal advice with a view to bringing closure to the issue of
the will,” said Ushewokonze Law Chambers.
Ms Darangwa, through her lawyers Rufu Makoni Legal
Practitioners, denied ever influencing the family to accept her executorship or
the unsigned will.
“When she (Ms Darangwa) read the will to the family
members, they were all very happy about the contents thereof and stated that
the will in question contained the wishes of the deceased, which he had hinted
to some of the family members, friends and employees before his demise.
“The family unanimously agreed that the estate be
registered.
“Even after the registration of the estate, your clients
were working very well with our client. She is therefore shocked by your
clients’ averments that she unduly influenced them to accept the will,” reads
the letter by Ms Darangwa’s lawyers.
Kadungure died on November 8 last year along Liberation
Legacy Way in Harare, ordinarily known by many as Borrowdale Road, when his
speeding Rolls Royce collided head-on with a Honda Fit.
His vehicle veered off the road and hit a tree before
catching fire. He was with two foreign friends who had come for the Saturday
night party.
Limumba Karim from Malawi and a Mozambican, who was only
identified as Elisha and the birthday girl, Mitchelle “Moana” Umali were burnt
beyond recognition after the doors of the Rolls Royce jammed on impact and it
took many hours for police and the Fire Brigade to retrieve their remains from
the wreckage. Herald
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