Vereeniging Municipality v Vereeniging Estates Ltd

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Docket Number: Case No. 33
• Court: Local Division Court
• Date: 15 May 1919

Union of South Africa, Supreme Court (Transvaal Provincial Division).

(Wessels and Mason, JJ.)

Case No. 33

Vereeniging Municipality

and

Vereeniging Estates Limited.

State Succession — Contracts — No Liability without Express Recognition.

The Facts.—The defendant company claimed to have the right to erect wires for the purpose of conveying electric current across certain streets vested in, and within the jurisdiction of, the plaintiff municipality. The source of the alleged right was a contract entered into between the Government of the late South African Republic and the company's predecessors in title.

Held: That the contract, not having been specifically recognised by the British Government after annexation, was not binding upon that Government or its successor in title. “It has already been decided by our courts … that, where a person had a personal right as against the Government of the South African Republic, he could not vindicate that personal right in the courts of the Transvaal Colony after annexation. He could not set up a right that he had as against the extinct Government. He could not set that right up in the courts of the conqueror, because the conquest is an act of State. That act of State would regulate the relationship between the conqueror and the conquered; it is not a matter that can be inquired into by our...