Lawyers representing a company linked to one of Zimbabwe’s top realtors Paul Kennan have renounced agency two weeks before the firm appears at the Supreme Court in a case where it is accused of using fraudulent means to takeover a property in Harare’s posh suburb of Borrowdale.
Kennan’s company, Couch Grass, will appear before the Supreme Court on November 11 after Sayles Corporation appealed against a judgement by High Court judge Justice Siyabona Musithu, which was in its favour.
Couch Grass had managed to secure the title of the Borrowdale property measuring 6.8 hectares in 2012 following a sale of the same property by the then executors of June Searson’s estate and changed the title deed into its name despite the existence of a caveat on the property by Samalyn Investments.
After the Couch Grass title was cancelled, the company, through its lawyers, Mark Warhurst, Richard Manwick Dhaka, and Kerry Stone secured a High Court default judgment that was used to reclaim the title.
The lawyers are accused of withholding information to the court about notices of appeal filed against their application in order to obtain a default judgement, which they used to revive the title.
On the eve of the Supreme Court hearing, Couch Grass’ lawyers’ Dhaka, Lightfoot and Stone renounced agency.
The three have a pending case before the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) emanating from the way they secured the judgement against Sayles Corporation when they were still working under Matizanadzo and Warhurst Legal Practitioners.
“Please take not that Dhaka Lightfoot and Stone Attorneys hereby renounce agency on behalf respondent.
“The respondent’s address of service shall henceforth be care of Messrs Mtetwa & Nyambirai Legal Practioners, 8 Meredith Road, Eastlea, Harare,” read the notice of renunciation of agency dated October 31, 2024.
Two High Court staffers who were implicated in the alleged fraudulent railroading of the case under the unopposed roll were last week summoned by the police for questioning.
The two only identified as Mupita and Taga were summoned to the Harare Central Police where they were quizzed about their alleged manipulation of court processes to put the Couch Grass case on the unopposed roll.
Mupita resigned in 2021 to avoid impending disciplinary proceedings by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) over the matter.
The JSC had ruled that the default judgment was obtained fraudulently.
Sayles and Samalyn accuse the Couch Grass lawyers of conniving with the court officials to prejudice them and they want them to be censored by the LSZ.
Samalyn’s argued that the three lawyers intentionally removed papers from the court record and deliberately placed incomplete records before the judge to obtain a default judgment despite having been served with opposition papers.
Couch Grass allegedly used fake adverts and transferred the property on September 25, 2012, without a court order invalidating the caveat and without supporting documents.
The advert could not be located in the issue of the NewsDay that Couch Grass claimed to have used and an inquiry by Naude with the paper showed no such advert was published.
Cough Grass only managed to file the supporting documents with the Deeds Office a month later after transferring the title.
Kennan’s company was registered in October 2012, a month after the title was transferred into its name on September 25.
Samalyn secured a court order cancelling Couch Grass’ title and the executor was ordered to transfer the title to any company that would buy the land.
Three court applications by Thomas and Simon Searson, Leeper, and Couch Grass to stop the execution of the order nullifying the Couch Grass title deeds and ordering the reopening of the late Searson’s estate as well as the appointment of an executor to cause the transfer of the property into any new buyer flopped.
The title was then transferred to Sayles Corporation.
Cough Grass then filed a court application in 2019 seeking the cancellation of Sayles’ title and the revival of its own title, which was cancelled in 2017.
Couch Grass cited five respondents including Sayles and Shepard Chimutanda, who was the executor of Searson’s estate.
They also cited the registrar of deeds, c Samalyn and the master of the High Court. Out of the five respondents, Chimutanda, Sayles and Samalyn opposed the application.
Their respective notices of opposition were served on Matizanadzo and Warhurst on October 18, 2019 and the lawyers confirmed receipt.
The lawyers, however, proceeded to have the case heard unopposed after allegedly hiding notices of opposition to secure a default judgment on October 23, 2019 before High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore.
Matizanadzo and Warhurst used the judgment to change the title of the Borrowdale property from Sayles to Couch Grass.