News / National
Obert Gutu's firm blamed in 'forged will' case
11 Jan 2013 at 07:46hrs | Views
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's assigned Deputy Minister for Justice, Obert Gutu's legal firm is under scrutiny for dealing negligently with a lawsuit involving the welfare of a surviving minor and child of a businessman, Mr Innocent Katsiga who died in 2011.
The Gutu & Chikowero legal firm failed to perform an urgent chamber application for Mr Katsiga's 9 year old child to secure his best interests through adequate interim relief. This is something Gutu's boss Tsvangirai achieved several times last year as he fought his way out of multiple love affairs.
Obert Gutu's law firm, Gutu and Chikowero were handling the case of a High court lawsuit on the late Mr Innocent Katsiga's will which has three vividly different signatures of the same deceased person on the single determining will document. Coincidentally the same signatures negatively affect Sasha Katsiga, 9, who is currently renting a Rhodesian style boy skie cottage house despite his father's estate having houses, flats, assets and cash stretching beyond USD2 million which include up to £900 000 stashed in UK bank accounts.
Other children are Manfred and Reynolds, also minors from another woman. Both mothers were customary wives of the deceased.
Gutu's senior partner Benjamin Chikowero admitted that the signature is questionable as it appears in three different forms.
But Minister Obert Gutu's firm failed to perform a simple High Court chamber application for a school going minor, (who is robbed through the forged will) something Gutu's own boss Morgan Tsvangirai managed to do last year as he secured several urgent chamber applications in less than two weeks while fighting his way out of his multiple love affairs past several lovers, Leocardia Karimatsenga, a named South African mistress, and his new wife Elizabeth Macheka.
"No urgency in the matter"
Gutu's senior partner Mr. Benjamin Chikowero even refused to do a chamber application stating that: "An urgent application at this point in time would not stand any chance of success."
He even stated that there is no urgency in the matter:
"There is no sense of urgency. This matter is already before the courts by the way of summons…"
He said that an urgent application would not succeed:
"An urgent application at this point in time will not succeed," he said.
Sasha Katsiga would however have been kicked out of school if ZimEye had not intervened last week when the Master's Office of High Court at Harare, between Saturday and Sunday, miraculously surfaced saying they would finally transfer school fee funds to his mother from the Guardian's fund by Thursday (meaning yesterday).
Original will still missing
The culprits in the case are named as the Harare based Wintertons Legal firm who have refused to avail a copy of the original will, ZimEye can reveal. ZimEye will in the next few days expose deeper details on the firm's dodgy dealings especially in this issue that has left a minor prejudiced to such an extent.
The wherabouts of the original will remain a puzzle to date and Wintertons, as the named Executors, have refused to produce it besides earlier promises and undertakings to do so.
Allocation of Assets questionable
The allocation of assets as noted in the "will" has also raised several questions because:
1(a). According to family members, Innocent Katsiga loved his children equally and the disparities in the estate's minor children have raised a red flag on the sidelining of Sasha Katsiga to suffer in an Estate where his father left such wealth that now mainly benefits Sasha's siblings and their mother.
2. The "will" has deliberately created a puzzle by naming just bank names in England without any other details such as branches and amounts, leaving more work to the surviving family members to sort the puzzle. If the will was drawn by a professional lawyer, all details could have been on the table. Close to a million British pounds were reportedly stashed in those bank accounts and Wintertons have remained mum on the issue.
3. Some portions of the will have incomplete calculations on shares of assets allocated and some are more than 100% shares in one asset as some are e.g. 40% to minor child A . 40% to minor child B and the rest is unnamed and unidentified. A diligent and qualified lawyer handling such an estate would have easily picked up and identified the disparities way ahead of the lodging of papers.
4. A considerable portion of assets have been left out of the "will" for example a housing property in Borrowdale and the on-going business operations left by the deceased.
5. Besides openly-aired grievances to have these issues ironed out through legal channels, Wintertons, acting through their Mr. Pichanick have not moved an inch as Mr. Pichanik has not been available all the time and now the issue is closed.
Gutu has been finger-pointed for the failure to settle the matter on time despite requests to him in his official capacity as a Justice Minister. A family member has told ZimEye she was told by a High Court clerk:
"Gutu and Chikowero did not do a professional job on the case, they knew what they could have done e.g. file for interim relief for the child, place a caveat on properties (to prevent any transactons over them) through a court order, fight for their clients."
When contacted, Mr Gutu said he was not handling the case himself having left legal practice when he entered government service some years ago.
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This story is the first in a series of articles on Wintertons law firm Money, and Estate Scandal.
The Gutu & Chikowero legal firm failed to perform an urgent chamber application for Mr Katsiga's 9 year old child to secure his best interests through adequate interim relief. This is something Gutu's boss Tsvangirai achieved several times last year as he fought his way out of multiple love affairs.
Obert Gutu's law firm, Gutu and Chikowero were handling the case of a High court lawsuit on the late Mr Innocent Katsiga's will which has three vividly different signatures of the same deceased person on the single determining will document. Coincidentally the same signatures negatively affect Sasha Katsiga, 9, who is currently renting a Rhodesian style boy skie cottage house despite his father's estate having houses, flats, assets and cash stretching beyond USD2 million which include up to £900 000 stashed in UK bank accounts.
Other children are Manfred and Reynolds, also minors from another woman. Both mothers were customary wives of the deceased.
Gutu's senior partner Benjamin Chikowero admitted that the signature is questionable as it appears in three different forms.
But Minister Obert Gutu's firm failed to perform a simple High Court chamber application for a school going minor, (who is robbed through the forged will) something Gutu's own boss Morgan Tsvangirai managed to do last year as he secured several urgent chamber applications in less than two weeks while fighting his way out of his multiple love affairs past several lovers, Leocardia Karimatsenga, a named South African mistress, and his new wife Elizabeth Macheka.
"No urgency in the matter"
Gutu's senior partner Mr. Benjamin Chikowero even refused to do a chamber application stating that: "An urgent application at this point in time would not stand any chance of success."
He even stated that there is no urgency in the matter:
"There is no sense of urgency. This matter is already before the courts by the way of summons…"
He said that an urgent application would not succeed:
"An urgent application at this point in time will not succeed," he said.
Sasha Katsiga would however have been kicked out of school if ZimEye had not intervened last week when the Master's Office of High Court at Harare, between Saturday and Sunday, miraculously surfaced saying they would finally transfer school fee funds to his mother from the Guardian's fund by Thursday (meaning yesterday).
Original will still missing
The culprits in the case are named as the Harare based Wintertons Legal firm who have refused to avail a copy of the original will, ZimEye can reveal. ZimEye will in the next few days expose deeper details on the firm's dodgy dealings especially in this issue that has left a minor prejudiced to such an extent.
The wherabouts of the original will remain a puzzle to date and Wintertons, as the named Executors, have refused to produce it besides earlier promises and undertakings to do so.
Allocation of Assets questionable
The allocation of assets as noted in the "will" has also raised several questions because:
1(a). According to family members, Innocent Katsiga loved his children equally and the disparities in the estate's minor children have raised a red flag on the sidelining of Sasha Katsiga to suffer in an Estate where his father left such wealth that now mainly benefits Sasha's siblings and their mother.
2. The "will" has deliberately created a puzzle by naming just bank names in England without any other details such as branches and amounts, leaving more work to the surviving family members to sort the puzzle. If the will was drawn by a professional lawyer, all details could have been on the table. Close to a million British pounds were reportedly stashed in those bank accounts and Wintertons have remained mum on the issue.
3. Some portions of the will have incomplete calculations on shares of assets allocated and some are more than 100% shares in one asset as some are e.g. 40% to minor child A . 40% to minor child B and the rest is unnamed and unidentified. A diligent and qualified lawyer handling such an estate would have easily picked up and identified the disparities way ahead of the lodging of papers.
4. A considerable portion of assets have been left out of the "will" for example a housing property in Borrowdale and the on-going business operations left by the deceased.
5. Besides openly-aired grievances to have these issues ironed out through legal channels, Wintertons, acting through their Mr. Pichanick have not moved an inch as Mr. Pichanik has not been available all the time and now the issue is closed.
Gutu has been finger-pointed for the failure to settle the matter on time despite requests to him in his official capacity as a Justice Minister. A family member has told ZimEye she was told by a High Court clerk:
"Gutu and Chikowero did not do a professional job on the case, they knew what they could have done e.g. file for interim relief for the child, place a caveat on properties (to prevent any transactons over them) through a court order, fight for their clients."
When contacted, Mr Gutu said he was not handling the case himself having left legal practice when he entered government service some years ago.
-------------------------
This story is the first in a series of articles on Wintertons law firm Money, and Estate Scandal.
Source - zimeye
