Delict: claim based on negligent omission: young child falling into swimming pool: necessity to show landowner’s omission to secure gate in pool fence wrongful: child under parental supervision: wrongfulness and negligence of landowner not established.
Media Summary

Prescription Act 68 of 1969 – s 12(3) – identity of debtor and facts from which debt arose – objective standard of reasonable care – statutory attribution of knowledge to creditor – claims prescribed.
Media Summary

Lease – National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act 103 of 1977 – lease agreement not rendered invalid and unenforceable by ss (4)(1) and 14(1), read with s 4(4) and s 14(4)(a) of the Act.
Media Summary

Contract – breach of mandate by first attorneys in under-settling RAF claim – breach by second attorneys in allowing claim against first attorneys to prescribe – damages to be assessed at notional trial date of RAF claim.
Contract – damages – whether court a quo ought to have reduced damages for delay in bringing claim to trial.
Interest – applicability of s 2A(5) of Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975.

Appeal ─ Determination of the price of shares by an independent expert ─ appeal against the decision to enforce the award made by an independent expert ─ whether there was a manifest error in the report of the independent expert in that he went beyond the terms of the mandate ─ whether the court a quo correctly found that there was no manifest error.

Simultaneous applications for rezoning and subdivision of land brought under the Land Use Planning Ordinance 15 of 1985, Cape (LUPO): subdivision granted but rezoning of certain erven to business deferred for further information: later application brought for rezoning of those erven to business: this construed as part of original application that had been deferred: two year utilisation period envisaged in s 16(2)(a) of LUPO therefore not applicable: property in any event utilized for business purposes as envisaged by LUPO within that period: claim for an interdict based on allegation that property’s use for business purposes was illegal accordingly dismissed.
Media Summary

Contract – whether contract can be terminated without entering into negotiations – duty to negotiate in good faith – appellant not obliged to renew lease agreement – application for eviction upheld – not competent for court to import term not intended by parties simply on the basis of ubuntu.

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 – s16 read with Item 8 of Schedule 2 – Department of Mineral Resources granting rights to two different entities in respect of same land and minerals – once the holder of an unused old order right submits an application within the one year exclusivity period, both the unused old order right and the exclusivity which it confers remain extant until the application is either granted and dealt with in terms of s 17 or refused - where the application is made but neither granted nor refused the unused old order right and its exclusivity period endure – that precludes
Media Summary

Delict – action for damages – loss of support – dependant's action – breadwinner died as a result of own negligence – single vehicle accident – wrongfulness not established against the Road Accident Fund – appeal dismissed.
Media Summary

Civil procedure – application for condonation and reinstatement by appellants in Case 370/2017 (‘occupants’) granted in interests of justice despite egregious non-compliance with rules relating to heads of argument.
Contempt of court – occupants failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt that respondent (‘Normandien’) in contempt of appellate process – contempt application, including related postponement application, dismissed.
Land reform – whether Minister has power under Land Reform: Provision of Land and Assistance Act 126 of 1993 to make land available solely for purposes of grazing – court a quo erred in compelling Minister to exercise permissive powers in favour of occupants – Minister’s appeal succeeds.
Environmental law – Normandien had standing to seek removal of occupants’ livestock on land overgrazed in violation of Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act 43 of 1983 (CARA) – labour tenants not exempt from CARA – removal of animals in terms of CARA not an eviction for purposes of Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996 – occupants’ appeal dismissed.
Costs – Biowatch principle applicable to costs in court a quo and on appeal as between Minister and Normandien, ie parties to bear their own costs.
Costs – no grounds for interfering in court a quo order that occupants pay Normandien’s costs on punitive scale.
Costs – occupants’ application for condonation and reinstatement necessitated by joint failings by attorneys and counsel – contempt and postponement application an abuse having no substantive merit – attorneys ordered personally to pay Normandien’s costs of opposing said applications on attorney/client scale – attorneys and counsel precluded from recovering fees from occupants in respect of these applications.
Appeals – practice – papers in opposed interlocutory applications to be indexed and paginated.
Media Summary