Nombatshana v Makabala
| Jurisdiction | South Africa |
| Citation | 1922 AD 471 |
Nombatshana Applicant v Makabala Respondent
1922 AD 471
1922 AD p471
|
Citation |
1922 AD 471 |
|
Court |
Appellate Division, Bloemfontein |
|
Judge |
Innes CJ |
|
Heard |
July 7, 1922 |
|
Judgment |
July 7, 1922 |
Flynote : Sleutelwoorde
Appeal — Special leave — Consent — Appeal on facts — Stale claim — Lobolo.
Headnote : Kopnota
Leave to appeal from a decision of the Natal Native High Court sitting as a Court of Appeal, from a decision of a magistrate's court refused, though the respondent consented to the granting of such leave where the subject-matter of the dispute was very stale, and the decision related to a question of fact involving payment of lobolo by one native to another.
Case Information
Application for leave to appeal from a decision of the Natal Native High Court (CHADWICK, J.: LESLIE, J., and FARRER, J.) sitting as a Court of Appeal from a decision of the magistrate's court, Ekandhla.
Plaintiff sued defendant in the magistrate's court for fourteen head of cattle being balance of lobolo due in respect of the marriages of two girls. Defendant admitted that he owed five head of cattle. The magistrate gave judgment for plaintiff for thirteen head of cattle and on appeal the High Court altered the judgment into judgment for the plaintiff for three head.
The marriages of the girls, respectively, took place before the Boer war and shortly after the 1906 rebellion.
Plaintiff now applied for leave to appeal.
R.C. Streeten for the applicant.
Judgment
Innes, C.J.:
There has been a consent filed in this case, but that does not bind the Court which has a discretion in there applications. The great difficulty in the way of granting leave is that the subject-matter of the case is so stale. The matter in dispute is the right to 10 head of stock which are claimed in respect of two marriages which took place the one nearly a quarter of a century ago and the other sixteen years ago.
If any important point of law or practice or native custom had been involved one would have expected that the matter would have been brought up long before the lapse of all these years.
Mr. Streeten has shown, by reference to the record, that the reasons of the judges in the Native High Court are open to some criticism, but their decision related to a question of fact of a nature with which the Native High Court is peculiarly fitted to deal.
A ruinous amount has already been spent by the parties...
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Barrett v Rewi Bulawayo Development Syndicate Ltd
...court below held to be wrong, but which I think is the correct one. Whatever the effect upon the defendants, the decision goes to the root 1922 AD p471 Juta, of the plaintiff's claim, as framed in the declaration. It cannot, therefore be fairly said that the exception was not a proper one f......
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Barrett v Rewi Bulawayo Development Syndicate Ltd
...court below held to be wrong, but which I think is the correct one. Whatever the effect upon the defendants, the decision goes to the root 1922 AD p471 Juta, of the plaintiff's claim, as framed in the declaration. It cannot, therefore be fairly said that the exception was not a proper one f......