eThekwini municipality loses battle to reclaim land
The SCA has upheld a Durban judge’s ruling that the eThekwini municipality has no claim to a plot of land it auctioned off in 1985. The Mercury reports the battle for the 700m² of undeveloped land in Verulam first found its way to the courts in 2014. The city contended that the current owners, Mounthaven Pty Ltd, had not complied with the ‘special conditions’ under which they originally bought the land.
The High Court found that 30 years on, those special conditions had lapsed and ruled in favour of Mounthaven. Determined to reclaim the land, the city took the matter to the SCA. But there, too, it was unsuccessful.
The High Court ultimately found that the city’s claim to the land was based on a ‘debt’ in terms of the Prescription Act, and that the city lost its right of action when that debt prescribed after three years. The basis of the city’s appeal was its contention that its claim did not constitute a debt, but ‘simply a mechanism to perfect (its) ownership of the property and that it did not prescribe’.
The SCA, however, did not agree.
‘The claim for re-transfer constitutes a debt, and it prescribed after the effluxion of the three-year period. The appeal must thus fail,’ it ruled. It awarded Mounthaven costs.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
