Chinhoyi in bid to stop arbitration

CHINHOYI Municipality has approached the High Court seeking to stop the arbitration proceedings in which a Harare lawyer is suing the council over cancellation of a debt collection contract.

Mr Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana, a senior partner at Mangwana and Partners Legal Practitioners, has taken the municipality to an arbitrator, seeking to recover $2, 2 million.

The claim covers payment for services rendered and damages over the cancellation of the contract.

The hearing of the matter before an arbitrator and former judge Justice Moses Chinhengo got underway last week.

However, the council that is protesting over the manner the case is being treated, is now seeking to stop the proceedings through an urgent chamber application at the High Court.

Mangwana and Partners Legal Practitioners and Justice Chin- hengo are cited as respondents in the matter.

The council wants the arbitration proceedings between the parties held last week on Thursday before Justice Chinhengo stopped on the basis that they were conducted without determination on the point of jurisdiction. The council further wants the proceedings stayed until the determination of the question of jurisdiction before the judge.

According to the application filed in the High Court last Friday, the municipality argues that it raised a preliminary point on the question of the jurisdiction and appointment of Justice Chinhengo.

After hearing the argument, the matter was reserved to the following day. However, when the hearing resumed last Thursday, the municipality sought a postponement as it had engaged new counsel to argue the matter.

“The postponement was previously sought and acceded to by the first respondent (Mr Mangwana’s counsel),” said the council.

“The purpose was to enable argument on the preliminary point of jurisdiction to be advanced by new counsel.”

Rather than make a ruling at first instance on the question of jurisdiction, council argued that Justice Chinhengo went ahead to hear the matter on the merits. This, the council said, was despite the challenge to his jurisdiction.

Chinhoyi municipality, in a full council meeting held on September 8 last year, terminated Mangwana’s business contract for allegedly failing to comply with terms of the agreement. The contract was later given to another law firm.

In his lawsuit, Mr Mangwana claims the parties entered into a debt collection agreement on July 29, 2015. He argues that in terms of the contract, the law firm was supposed to collect $9 169 453,77 from the municipality’s debtors.