The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has handed down judgment in favour of former Johannesburg father and son personal injury attorneys, Ronald and Darren Bobroff, who fled SA for Australia in 2016, notes a Moneyweb report. In March 2017, Acting Judge Etienne Theron provisionally sequestrated the Bobroffs, reasoning that ‘assets may be unearthed that will benefit creditors'.

The applicants – Pretoria widow and medical negligence victim Christine Maree (79), and road accident victim Yasmin Motara (32) – had obtained judgment against Ronald Bobroff & Partners Incorporated (RBP). The report notes that although RBP is a company, the Attorneys Act provides that each director of a law firm that is ‘incorporated’ be personally liable for the debts of the firm.

It was argued on behalf that there was a congruence of the debts of the father and son duo as the debts had arisen as a result of their joint liability towards the creditors of RBP.

However, Judge Edwin Molahlelhi was unpersuaded by the applicants’ argument and noted that ‘a joinder of more than one respondent in an application for sequestration is permissible where there is a complete identity of interest or where there is consent by the parties’.

Molahlelhi found the reasoning of Theron was, ‘palpably wrong and accordingly neither does it provide any precedential value nor binding effect on this court’ and that there was ‘a clear misjoinder of the two respondents’ (the Bobroffs) which he held to be fatal to the applicants’ case.

Anthony Millar, the attorney acting for Maree and Motara, reportedly told Moneyweb: 'In view of Ronald Bobroff’s own statement under oath in this matter that he and his son pooled their money (R102m) and sequestered it in Israel to avoid paying their creditors, we have considered the judgment and intend to apply for leave to appeal.’

Full Moneyweb report