Woman ordered to pay late mum's hospital debt

THE High Court has ordered a Bulawayo woman whose late mother owed Mater Dei Hospital more than $34 000 in unpaid medical bills, to pay the money or face 60 days civil imprisonment.

The ruling by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese follows summons for civil imprisonment filed by Mater Dei Hospital which sought to execute a judgment ruled in its favour to recover the money.

The debt emanates from medical services and drugs supplied to the late Ms Reginah Ncube by Mater Dei Hospital between November 8 in 2014 and March 4 in 2015.

Ms Ncube was admitted to the Roman Catholic-run hospital during that period for an undisclosed ailment before she later succumbed to the disease.

Justice Makonese said the deceased's daughter, Ms Kathleen Van Ginkel of Malindela suburb who bound herself as surety, is obliged to either pay $34 008,80 or face civil imprisonment of up to 60 days in jail.

In papers filed at the Bulawayo High Court, Ms Van Ginkel has been cited as the defendant under case number HC 43/17.

The judge ordered Ms Van Ginkel to pay the hospital $2 000 by April 30 this year after which she should pay not less than $300 per month until she clears the debt.

"It is ordered that the defendant (Ms Van Ginkel) shall pay plaintiff (Mater Dei Hospital) the sum of $2 000 which shall be recovered from Clarion Insurance Company by April 30, 2017. Civil imprisonment is hereby granted against the defendant for 60 days on condition she pays $2 000 and a monthly payment of not less than $300 from April 30, 2017 until the whole amount of $34 008, 80 is paid in full," ruled Justice Makonese.

"The defendant is called upon to pay the plaintiff the sum of $34 008,80 with interest at the prescribed rate from 8 July 2016 to the date of full and final payment. You are required to pay the money by virtue of a judgment obtained against yourself in Bulawayo on 14 September 2016 under which you were ordered to pay the sum of $34 008,80 with costs on an attorney-client scale," reads part of the summons.

"If you (defendant) fail to pay the sum specified above ($34 008,80), you must appear before the High Court at Bulawayo … to explain why you have not paid it and to show cause why an order of your imprisonment should not be made on account of your failure to pay."

Ms Van Ginkel was in September last year ordered by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Francis Bere to pay the money together with interest and legal costs incurred by the hospital.

Mater Dei Hospital had through its lawyers, Coghlan and Welsh Legal Practitioners, approached the High Court seeking an order compelling Ms Van Ginkel to pay her late mother's medical bill.

According to the court papers, between November 2014 and March 2015, Mater Dei Hospital rendered hospital services and supplied pharmaceutical drugs and medication to the late Ms Ncube. In terms of the agreement entered between the hospital and the defendant, Ms Van Ginkel bound herself as the surety for the medical bill.

The money was due upon Ms Ncube's discharge from hospital.