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Full text of Arthur Mutambara's $1 million lawsuit against TN Harlequin Luxaire Ltd
01 Apr 2014 at 05:56hrs | Views
PLAINTIFF (PROF ARTHUR G.O. MUTAMBARA)'S DECLARATION
1. The Plaintiff in this matter is Professor Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara, a male adult whose address for service herein is care of his legal practitioners of record, Messrs Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners No. 2 Meredith Drive Eastlea, Harare.
2. The Defendant in this matter is TN Harlequin Luxaire Limited, a company duly incorporated in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe with the capacity to sue and be sued in its corporate name whose address for service is care of its Legal Practitioners, Messrs Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal Practitioners, No. 2 Meredith Drive Eastlea, Harare.
3. The Plaintiff is a former Deputy Prime Minister for the government of Zimbabwe and a prominent politician.
4. He is also a renowned professor of robotics with an impeccable reputation locally and internationally.
5. For his services as a Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Zimbabwe, the latter officially bought for him furniture from the defendant as part of his conditions of service. This arrangement was done for all the then three occupants of the government of Zimbabwe Premiership, the Prime Minister and the two Deputy Prime Ministers.
6. Due to limited government resources the furniture of the other two was fully paid for, while partial payment was made for the furniture used by the Plaintiff.
7. Consequently, this furniture was not paid in full during the tenure of the inclusive government resulting in the plaintiff leaving government before the defendant's furniture debt was fully amortized by the benefactor, the Government of Zimbabwe.
8. Despite being fully aware that the furniture debt aforesaid was incurred by the government of Zimbabwe as part of the latter's performance of its contractual obligations to the plaintiff and two other occupants of the office of the Prime Minister ( the Prime Minister and the other Deputy Prime Minister), the defendant maliciously proceeded to issue summons against the plaintiff out of the High Court of Zimbabwe sometime in March 2014, wrongfully and spitefully claiming the sum of Eight Seven Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty- Six United States Dollars and Seventy Cents (US$87 556.70) from the plaintiff.
9. In issuing summons against the plaintiff with a malicious intention and/or improper motives, the defendant abused the process of this Honourable Court, thereby losing any protection ordinarily accorded to statements contained in court documents. Accordingly, the very act of issuing summons was the publication of defamatory falsehoods about the plaintiff.
10. In the first place there was never a loan agreement or purchase arrangement between the defendant and the plaintiff. In spite of this, the defendant takes the debt incurred by the Government of about Forty Three Thousand United States Dollars (US$43 000.00) puts an interest rate of 40% per annum and then claims it from the plaintiff.
11. This is clearly dishonest and malicious.
12. The plaintiff's reasonable apprehension is that the defendant improperly wants to exert undue and unwarranted pressure on him thereby abusing him as a debt collection agent for recovering its debt from the Government of Zimbabwe albeit through malicious and unorthodox means.
13. By either omission or commission or both, on or around 26th March 2014, the defendant maliciously caused the publication of a newspaper story in the Herald newspaper alleging that plaintiff was being sued to pay for a furniture debt at a time when plaintiff had not even been served with the alleged High Court summons.
14. Up to today, the 31st of March 2014, the plaintiff has not been served with that summons. This is despite the availability of the plaintiff, who has in fact established contact with the defendant.
15. Furthermore, since the publication of the newspaper story, the defendant has been busy having meetings with Government of Zimbabwe officials to secure payment, while using the supposed law suit as leverage.
16. Also, prior to the newspaper story the defendant never communicated directly with the plaintiff. There were never any letters of demand served on the plaintiff and up to the point of the supposed court action all communication was between the defendant and the government of Zimbabwe.
17. The false statements alleging that plaintiff failed to pay a furniture debt was patently defamatory and did harm the plaintiff's reputation and good name in that any reasonable person can easily conclude or think that the plaintiff is a highly irresponsible person who does not honour contractual obligations when the opposite is true.
18. The malicious allegation to the effect that plaintiff failed to pay a furniture debt as peddled by the plaintiff and its agents defamed the plaintiff resulting in a grave harm to his reputation locally and internationally and thus the plaintiff suffered damages in the sum of One Million United States Dollars (US$1 000 000.00) as a result of the malicious and defamatory allegations aforementioned.
19. As a result of the cumulative effect of defendant`s conduct, the plaintiff also suffered an impairment of his dignity and suffered damages in the sum of One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$100 000.00)
WHEREFORE the Plaintiff prays for a Judgment to be entered as follows:
(a) An order for the defendant to pay him the sum of One million United States dollars (US$1 000 000.00) as damages for defamation.
(b) An order for the defendant to pay him the sum of One Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$100 000.00) as damages for impairment of his dignity.
(c) An order for the defendant to pay him costs of suit on a legal practitioner-client scale.
DATED AT HARARE THIS THE 31ST DAY OF MARCH 2014
1. The Plaintiff in this matter is Professor Arthur Guseni Oliver Mutambara, a male adult whose address for service herein is care of his legal practitioners of record, Messrs Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners No. 2 Meredith Drive Eastlea, Harare.
2. The Defendant in this matter is TN Harlequin Luxaire Limited, a company duly incorporated in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe with the capacity to sue and be sued in its corporate name whose address for service is care of its Legal Practitioners, Messrs Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal Practitioners, No. 2 Meredith Drive Eastlea, Harare.
3. The Plaintiff is a former Deputy Prime Minister for the government of Zimbabwe and a prominent politician.
4. He is also a renowned professor of robotics with an impeccable reputation locally and internationally.
5. For his services as a Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Zimbabwe, the latter officially bought for him furniture from the defendant as part of his conditions of service. This arrangement was done for all the then three occupants of the government of Zimbabwe Premiership, the Prime Minister and the two Deputy Prime Ministers.
6. Due to limited government resources the furniture of the other two was fully paid for, while partial payment was made for the furniture used by the Plaintiff.
7. Consequently, this furniture was not paid in full during the tenure of the inclusive government resulting in the plaintiff leaving government before the defendant's furniture debt was fully amortized by the benefactor, the Government of Zimbabwe.
8. Despite being fully aware that the furniture debt aforesaid was incurred by the government of Zimbabwe as part of the latter's performance of its contractual obligations to the plaintiff and two other occupants of the office of the Prime Minister ( the Prime Minister and the other Deputy Prime Minister), the defendant maliciously proceeded to issue summons against the plaintiff out of the High Court of Zimbabwe sometime in March 2014, wrongfully and spitefully claiming the sum of Eight Seven Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty- Six United States Dollars and Seventy Cents (US$87 556.70) from the plaintiff.
9. In issuing summons against the plaintiff with a malicious intention and/or improper motives, the defendant abused the process of this Honourable Court, thereby losing any protection ordinarily accorded to statements contained in court documents. Accordingly, the very act of issuing summons was the publication of defamatory falsehoods about the plaintiff.
10. In the first place there was never a loan agreement or purchase arrangement between the defendant and the plaintiff. In spite of this, the defendant takes the debt incurred by the Government of about Forty Three Thousand United States Dollars (US$43 000.00) puts an interest rate of 40% per annum and then claims it from the plaintiff.
11. This is clearly dishonest and malicious.
13. By either omission or commission or both, on or around 26th March 2014, the defendant maliciously caused the publication of a newspaper story in the Herald newspaper alleging that plaintiff was being sued to pay for a furniture debt at a time when plaintiff had not even been served with the alleged High Court summons.
14. Up to today, the 31st of March 2014, the plaintiff has not been served with that summons. This is despite the availability of the plaintiff, who has in fact established contact with the defendant.
15. Furthermore, since the publication of the newspaper story, the defendant has been busy having meetings with Government of Zimbabwe officials to secure payment, while using the supposed law suit as leverage.
16. Also, prior to the newspaper story the defendant never communicated directly with the plaintiff. There were never any letters of demand served on the plaintiff and up to the point of the supposed court action all communication was between the defendant and the government of Zimbabwe.
17. The false statements alleging that plaintiff failed to pay a furniture debt was patently defamatory and did harm the plaintiff's reputation and good name in that any reasonable person can easily conclude or think that the plaintiff is a highly irresponsible person who does not honour contractual obligations when the opposite is true.
18. The malicious allegation to the effect that plaintiff failed to pay a furniture debt as peddled by the plaintiff and its agents defamed the plaintiff resulting in a grave harm to his reputation locally and internationally and thus the plaintiff suffered damages in the sum of One Million United States Dollars (US$1 000 000.00) as a result of the malicious and defamatory allegations aforementioned.
19. As a result of the cumulative effect of defendant`s conduct, the plaintiff also suffered an impairment of his dignity and suffered damages in the sum of One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$100 000.00)
WHEREFORE the Plaintiff prays for a Judgment to be entered as follows:
(a) An order for the defendant to pay him the sum of One million United States dollars (US$1 000 000.00) as damages for defamation.
(b) An order for the defendant to pay him the sum of One Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$100 000.00) as damages for impairment of his dignity.
(c) An order for the defendant to pay him costs of suit on a legal practitioner-client scale.
DATED AT HARARE THIS THE 31ST DAY OF MARCH 2014
Source - Byo24News
