The powers of a business rescue practitioner to suspend contracts has given rise to concern and speculation as to the effect of the exercise of those rights in business rescue and the implications for creditors. It has been clarified that a creditor whose agreement is suspended in business rescue has the right to withhold the
According to section 7(1) of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the act does not apply to a record requested for the purpose of civil proceedings which have already commenced.
Where a potential claimant requests information from the other party to pursue the claim, the rule of thumb is whether the records requested are
The Housing Authority of Somerset, US was liable for failing to maintain an area where a tree fell on three victims and the jury award was $3.7 million. The insurance policy limited coverage to $1 million for each ‘occurrence’. It was held that this was one occurrence.
The tree fell on two cousins, one of
South African Courts can enforce an arbitration award arising out of an arbitration which did not take place in South Africa, is not governed by South African law, does not involve any South African parties and relates to a transaction that is not linked to South Africa. All that is required is that the party
The Financial Sector Regulation Bill was signed into law by President Zuma on 21 August 2017. The commencement dates for the new Financial Sector Regulation Act (FSR Act) are not yet known.
The act provides the architecture for the new ‘twin peaks’ method of regulation to be adopted across the South African financial services industry,
Where a court is asked to set aside legislation on the grounds that it breaches the principle of legality because the law is not rationally connected to the legitimate government purpose for which it is passed, the threshold is low. The connection must not be arbitrary but the law can be based on a reason
A New Zealand court has held that a policy undertaking by an insurer to reinstate the sum insured ‘after we have paid a claim under this policy’ does not give the insured a reinstatement right until a claim is actually paid. Where a loss happened, followed soon after by another loss before the first claim
In an important development of the law of interpretation of contracts, the Constitutional Court held in July 2017 that where ordinary laypeople use ordinary words in a contract, their understanding of the meaning of the words used must not be overridden by a lawyer’s understanding based on their knowledge of legal principles not familiar to
Where the period of a lease agreement is extended, the terms of that agreement will apply during the extended period unless the context or the parties’ intention indicates otherwise. Where parties to a lease simply say that they want to extend the lease period and stipulate nothing else, then the provisions relating not only to
In August 2017, a US federal court ruled that the ordinary meaning of ‘majority interest’ in a liability policy where cover is extended to all companies in which the named insured holds a majority interest is a financial interest, either direct or indirect, of greater than 50% and not only absolute ownership or a controlling