Saffer Clothing Industries (Pty) Ltd v Chiat and Mair; Sheftz and Sheftz v Chiat and Mair

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Judge: Ogilvie Thompson J
• Judgment Date: 29 November 1955
• Citation: 1956 (1) SA 756 (C)
• Hearing Date: 29 November 1955
• Court: Cape Provincial Division

Ogilvie Thompson, J.:

The Court has before it two competing petitions, E both seeking the sequestration of respondent partnership consisting of Reuben Chiat & Leslie Mair trading as Le Rubbi Enterprises. Both petitioners are represented by counsel, and both counsel are in agreement that sequestration should issue against the respondents. On the papers before the Court, this would clearly appear to be the case. The matter for decision, however, is at whose instance the Court should direct sequestration to issue.

F The salient, relevant facts are that the petition of Saffer Clothing Industries (Pty.) Ltd - to whom I will for convenience refer as Saffer Clothing and on whose behalf Mr. Friedman appears - was filed with the Registrar on the 26th of November, together with a set down in due form for to-day, which was the next available Court day for hearing G petitions of this kind in the ordinary course. The petition itself was signed on the 26th November, and the security required under the Insolvency Act was lodged with the Master on 21st November. In the case of the petition of Bennie Sheftz and Benjamin Sheftz - to whom I will hereinafter refer as Sheftz and for whom Mr. Levy has appeared - the petition was signed to-day, that is, the 29th of November, and the H matter was to-day presented to the Registrar with a notice of set down for to-day, that is to say, without the normal period intervening as is ordinarily required under Rule of Court 6 (10). The papers reveal that this course was adopted primarily because yesterday, at approximately 4.30 p.m., the attorney of record for Saffer Clothing intimated, in the course of a telephonic conversation with the attorney of record for Sheftz pertaining to another aspect of the respondents' affairs, that he had filed

Ogilvie Thompson J

the Saffer Clothing petition which was due for hearing to-day. The papers in the Sheftz' petition, however, reveal that security was lodged with the Master as far back as Saturday the 19th November.

According to the papers before the Court, a meeting of the creditors of the respondent partnership was held at the premises of Walter Goldberg A Trust Limited on the 25th November. At that meeting an offer of a compromise of 10s. in the £ was advanced and after discussion was subsequently carried by those present save for five representatives of creditors who intimated to the chairman of the meeting that they could not accept the proposed terms without...