A recent academic article by Dr Rika van Zyl argues persuasively that, where there is a contract for the benefit of a third party, the third party accepts the benefit of the contract between the other two parties and not to become a party to the contract. In drafting such contracts you must make sure the contract spells out clearly the intention, namely: whether the third party accepts the benefit or actually becomes a party to…

England’s highest court finally, after over four centuries of reported decisions on the issue, definitively held that the burden of proof lies on the carrier where cargo owners sue a ship owner for loss or damage to cargo. If the carrier could and should have taken precautions which would have prevented some inherent characteristic of the cargo from resulting in damage, that characteristic is not inherent vice. Accordingly, in order to be able to rely…

In March 2019, the Competition Commission published its latest guidelines for the determination of administrative penalties for failure to notify mergers and implementation of mergers contrary to the Competition Act 1998. The highest penalty to date for a failure to notify is R10 million. The methodology in the Guidelines could result in much higher figures and the penalty may also be imposed on the holding company of an acquirer, seller or target firm. Furthermore the…

The Labour Appeal Court (LAC) has reaffirmed that employers must be tolerant of employee religious beliefs. In TDF Network Africa (Pty) Ltd v Deidre Beverley Faris, it ruled that the employee was discriminated against and unfairly dismissed for practising her religion. Faris, a Seventh Day Adventist, refused to attend monthly Saturday stock takes as her religion prohibited working over the Sabbath. The employer dismissed her for ‘incapacity’. Faris approached the Labour Court with an…

Extraordinarily, a case involving a passenger opening a car door and scratching a neighbouring vehicle in a supermarket carpark led to a decision before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Europe’s highest court found that this is ‘use of vehicles’ for the purposes of motor vehicle insurance. The event happened in Latvia where the claim was rejected on the basis that the liability was not one that had to be covered by a…

Under the business judgment rule, a director or officer may be excused from conduct which has adverse circumstances for the company if their judgment, albeit poor judgment, was exercised in good faith and in the interests of the company. In an action in Delaware, USA, the CEO was denied this assistance by the court because, faced with job uncertainty, he put his own interests above those of shareholders. The court refused to dismiss the fiduciary…

The Supreme Court of Appeal found that if the underlying cause of a settlement does not fall within the parameters of the National Credit Act (NCA), then the settlement agreement cannot logically be converted to a credit agreement under the NCA. The underlying cause (in this case the rental agreement) is of vital significance because the compromise (settlement) remains linked to the underlying cause. The express references in the settlement agreement or acknowledgement of debt…