Firms sued over ‘malicious’ adverts
PROPERTY finance and development firm West Property Company is suing construction company Fairclot Investments and three others for putting up billboards discouraging potential buyers from buying stands in the Pomona City Project in north Harare.
West Property’s papers deposed in the High Court this week under case number HC 7462/20, state that West Property can sue since it has legitimate rights from the owner of the property to develop residential stands for sale and so did not need to be the owner to go to court.
The property in question is stand 654 Pomona Township, earmarked for a major property development venture known as Pomona City Project.
The property was transferred to the new owners, Doorex Properties, in 2019 and they granted West Property development rights, said West Property in its papers.
The company said the billboard advertisements came after it had been marketing the project for several months in the media, including newspapers, magazines and social media at a cost of thousands of dollars.
Paragon Printing and Packaging (Pvt) Ltd, Alan Russell and Grant Russell are the three other defendants.
The two companies and the two individuals published their advertisements or allowed billboards they control to carry the adverts after disputing West Property’s right to develop the property.
West Property said pending litigation did not have anything to do with the title to the property, so the billboard advertisements were wrong and malicious.
“The rights to the property had long since passed to the plaintiff and Doorex Properties, who are not parties in the pending litigation.”
Doorex Properties had stand 654 Pomona Township transferred to its ownership in 2019 and consequently gave West Property, the right to develop it.
“They had the duty to verify the accuracy of the information before they published it.”
“The plaintiff has standing to claim damages in respect of Stand 654 Pomona Township.
“The basis of the claim is not ownership of the property per se. The basis of the claim is that the plaintiff has legitimate rights granted by the registered owner of the property to develop residential stands for sale and lease utilising the avenue of a project known as West Property Pomona City Project.
“Consequently, the rights of the Pomona City Project are held by the plaintiff hence it is the one which suffered pecuniary loss caused by the published notices for which all defendants are complicit,” said West Property.