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A BULAWAYO businesswoman has dragged John Pocock Estate Agency to court demanding back company equipment and goods which were attached and sold by the estate agency.
According to court documents, the complainant, Ms Muriel De Souza, the proprietor of Tradepass Marketing, trading as Outreach for Jesus, said she wants her property worth $516 000, which was attached in 2010 following an alleged forged writ of execution returned.
Her company which was into furniture making, has since folded.
Ms De Souza is accusing John Pocock Estate Agency, represented by its director Jim Davidson, of fraud and violating the Legal Practitioners Act.
This follows some summons, which the estate agency sent her demanding payment of arrears and later charged her different amounts of legal and court fees.
The case was heard by Bulawayo magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere on Thursday last week and was postponed to 2 October when a witness would testify.
In her testimony, Ms De Souza said she entered into an agreement with Ms Marry Markou for a lease of property, which was being administered by John Pocock Estate Agency.
She said the estate agency started sending her some summons in 2007 and charged her for services as if it were a legal company.
The matter spilt into the courts and she sought to stop proceedings through an ex-parte application in 2007, which resulted in Bulawayo magistrate Mr Singandu Jele reserving judgement.
John Pocok allegedly attached the property as per amended summons in January 2010, which are being disputed by Ms De Souza.
The decision was questioned by the late Provincial Magistrate in charge of Matabeleland North Province, which incorporates Bulawayo,
Mr John Masimba who said “decisions of magistrates which they arrive at while performing judicial functions in court could not be revisited or interfered with administratively.”
The complainant’s contention is that it was legally wrong for the accused to amend the summons into United States dollars when the country adopted the multi currency system.
She queries the names given by John Pocock, that is Mr Anthony Markou, who despite being the co-owner of the property with Ms Markou, is not in the country and was not part of the Memorandum of Agreement over the property.
Ms De Souza said Mr Markou and Mr M Filannino (Ms Markou’s husband) had no legal right to sue her because they were not parties in the agreement she made over the property.
She said according to the Memorandum of Agreement, she would only have been deemed to have defaulted on the instructions of a lawyer representing the owner of the property.
She said her landlord had no legal representation until in 2010. She also disputes the power of attorney of John Pocock, which she said is a nullity as it was not there in 2007 when the matter started.
The complainant accuses the estate agency of trying to justify the Z$13,8 million, Z$10 million and Z$304 000 she was made to pay as legal fees.
The court was told that Davidson was not a registered legal practitioner but processed summons and handed them to Ms De Souza.
By so doing, Davidson allegedly violated the Legal Practitioners Act.
Mr Jeremiah Mutsindikwa is appearing for the State.
Online Reporter