Mahtani haunts Atlas Mara
THE Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Finance Bank Zambia (the forerunner to Atlas Mara) in which it challenged the High Court’s decision which went in favour of a couple that claimed US$ 949, 933.87 from the bank.
Atlas Mara managing director, James Koni however said the Judgment falls within the normal course of business dealings and had no bearing on the provision of banking services or the nancial standing the bank.
“As a bank we are continuing to serve our customers in the best way possible. We would like to thank our customers for their continued support” he said.
e couple, Dimitrios Monokandilos and his wife Filandria Kouri had sued Finance Bank on grounds that the bank had wrongly debited their account with the amount from their joint US dollar account and High Court Judge William Mweemba ruled in their favour on March 30, 2018.
is prompted Finance Bank to appeal Mr. Justice Mweemba’s judgment in the Court of Appeal where the bank has again lost the case for the second time.
Delivering judgment on November 29, 2019, Court of Appeal Judges Catherine Makungu, Dominic Sichinga, and Petronella Ngulube dismissed the appeal on grounds that Mr. Justice Mweemba was on rm ground when he held that Mr. Monokandilos and Ms. Kouri had proved their case on a balance of probabilities and that their account was wrongly debited.
“We nd that the overdraft created was illegal and it should be reversed. Since the account was incorrectly debited on 16th July, 1996 and 29th August, 1996, we set aside part of the lower court’s judgment that says it was debited on 26th February 1996.
“Instead we adjudge that it was debited on 16th July, 1996 and 29th August, 1996 and that interest should accordingly be calculated on the principal sum of US$949, 833.81 at 7 percent per annum from the date of the writ until full settlement.
“We take it that the appeal has failed. We order that the appellant (Finance Bank) shall bear the costs in court below and here. e same should be agreed upon or taxed in default of agreement,” the judgment read in part.
In this matter Mr. Monokandilos and Ms.
Kouri were claiming damages for the conversion by the bank of US$949,933.87 or wrongly withdrawing the money from their joint dollar account in 1996.
e background of the case was that Mr Monokandilos and Ms Kouri opened a joint US dollars account in their names and only Mr Monokandilos lled in the application forms.
Initially, Mr. Monokandilos, as the chairman of International Investment and Financing Limited, acting on behalf of LM Comert International of Belgium, where he was also a shareholder and director, borrowed US$2, 190, 00 from Finance Bank to import maize from Tanzania.
He had several accounts with the bank but the bank debited the joint US dollar account with US$850, 000 as loan payment. e account was again debited with US$650, 000 as loan payment thereby overdrawing the account by US$643,501.36.
e money was purported to be an o set against the money owed to the bank by International Investment and Financing Limited.
e couple then sued the bank in 2010 for wrongly debiting the joint account claiming US$949,933.87 with interest at seven percent per annum.