Online Reporter
Chief Court Reporter
THE High Court has dismissed an application by Tsungirirayi Chipenzi to evict her sister-in-law, Alice Chigwerende, and those occupying Farm No. 412 in Lancashire, Chivhu.
The court ruled that material disputes over the family estate could not be resolved on the papers.
Justice Phillipa Phillips said the case had to be approached cautiously because it involved both family and land, noting that Ms Chigwerende and her son had lived on the farm for about 25 years.
“This is a case that involves family and land and therefore must be dealt with cautiously,” the judge said.
Ms Chipenzi, the registered owner of the farm, had relied on a title deed issued in August 2024 after she administered the estate of her late father, Jona Chipenzi.
She argued that Ms Chigwerende had no right to occupy the property and that any entitlement of her son arose through his late father’s estate, rather than his grandfather’s estate.
Ms Chigwerende opposed the application, arguing that information concerning the beneficiaries of Jona Chipenzi’s estate had not been disclosed when the estate was administered.
Her late husband, Munashe Chipenzi, was alive when his father died and was one of his children. The court noted that Munashe’s descendants could potentially have an interest in the estate.
Justice Phillips questioned the manner in which the estate had been administered, particularly the applicant’s description of herself as the deceased’s “only child”, when she was in fact the only surviving child.
“The applicant’s founding affidavit is deliberately scant of information,” the judge said, questioning the circumstances under which Chigwerende had occupied the farm and the basis of her claim to a portion of it. The judge found that the competing claims raised a material dispute of fact requiring evidence beyond the papers filed in the application.
The application was consequently dismissed, with Ms Chipenzi ordered to pay Ms Chigwerende’s legal costs on a legal practitioner-and-client scale.
