Businessman loses property over debt

A BULAWAYO businessman had his property which included three vehicles attached by the Sheriff after he failed to pay a debt of US$384 177 he owed a fellow businessman.

The property attached from the house includes a Toyota Rav4 rated at RTGS$20 000, Mazda Axela valued at RTGS$15 000, Honda Odyssey valued at RTGS$12 000, double-door fridge (RTGS$7 000), dinner table and chairs worth $8 000, treadmill priced at $5 000 and a four-piece leather brown sofa set which costs RTGS$15 000.

The attachment followed a judgement by the High Court’s Justice Martin Makonese that Ismail Moosa Lunat should pay the US$384 177 debt owed to fellow entrepreneur Mohamed Zakariya Patel at the prevailing interbank rate.

Lunat was also ordered to pay the costs of the suit.

Acting on the High Court judgment, the Sheriff on Friday, proceeded to attach and remove moveable property from Lunat’s house in Kumalo and also from his offices at Davids Mansions. In addition, the Sheriff was instructed to attach 50 percent of the shareholding in Dodge Seven Investments (Pvt) Ltd, a company that Lunat co-owns with his wife Angela Maria Coelho Costa Lunat.

According to a reliable source who is close to Lunat, the Sheriff cleaned Lunat’s house of all his property and left beds only.

e writ of attachment further read that if the moveable property from the said premises are insufficient to satisfy the judgment, the Sheriff should proceed to attach Lunat’s Baxendale Road Kumalo property under Deed of Transfer 56/2008.

Patel’s lawyers, Samukange Hungwe Attorneys through Gula Ndebele and Partners, called for the speedy attachment of the moveable property as they argued that Lunat was a man without integrity.

“We genuinely believe that the judgment debtor is a man without integrity. He has defrauded not only our client but several other people known to us. It may be in the best interests of justice, in our view, that you exercise your discretion in terms of Rule 326A (b) (i) of the High Court Rules, 1971,” reads the letter to the Sheriff of Zimbabwe.

According to court papers, Lunat signed an acknowledgement of debt on 11 January 2019, admitting that he owed Patel US$384 177. The respondent signed the acknowledgement of debt in the presence of a witness, Hetnesh Patel. The respondent renounced the benefits of all the legal exceptions, non cuasa debiti, non numeratae pecuniae, error calculi, revision of accounts, no value received and other exception which might or could be taken. The respondent acknowledged that he was fully acquainted with the full meaning and effect of the instrument before appending his signature thereto.

The papers further claim that the original debt was US$449 000, but Lunat had managed to pay US$64 823, leaving an unpaid balance of US$384 177. The respondent duly signed the document, reflecting the reduction in the debt.

However, Lunat claimed in court that he was forced to sign an acknowledgement of debt after Patel threatened to sell properties belonging to companies owned by his relatives whose title deeds were in possession of Patel. Lunat further contended that the amounts claimed related to monies paid to third parties.

Patel’s lawyers, however, dismissed Lunat’s defence as they argued that the respondent made no reports to the police or anywhere else about the coercion until demand was made for payment of debt.

In his ruling, Justice Makonese said Lunat’s defence was “clearly manufactured and designed to deceive the court”. He also pointed out that the respondent was “relying upon duress in order to impugn an acknowledgement of debt that he signed”, but “he could have avoided signing the agreement” as “the nature of the coercion is vague and remote’’.