Katsimberis property to be attached

Fidelis Munyoro-Chief Court Reporter

Building contractor George Katsimberis is set to lose property to his former business partner Mr Kenneth Sharpe, who has been given a High Court green light to attach the property to recover over US$15 000 in legal fees and other expenses incurred in defending two civil cases.

 In both cases, Mr Sharpe prevailed and in terms of the civil law the losing party is required to pay the successful party a reasonable sum for legal fees and expenses as is determined by the court after the case termination.

According to the writ of execution witnessed by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, the Sheriff is asked to attach Katsimberis’ movable goods at his Glen Lorne house in Harare to recover US$10 535 for the taxed costs and charges of the respondents pertaining to the case he lost at the High Court in November 2020.

 For the Supreme Court appeal, Katsimberis was supposed to part ways with US$4 500, but failed. This brings the total amount to US$15 035 for costs of the two cases.

 CJ Malaba is a witness to both writs of execution signed at the High Court on July 19. 

 Katsimberis lost in the Supreme and High Courts to stop Mr Sharpe from selling residential stands on an upscale property in Borrowdale.

 His company, Coolfitch Investments, had sued Mr Sharpe, who is the owner of Pokugara Properties, along with Harare couple Erasmus and Sibusisiwe Chindove, who bought a residential stand from Pokugara Properties.

Katsimberis wanted to interdict Pokugara from transferring the property to the couple until the dispute between him and Sharpe was finalised.

After losing his case at the High Court, Katsimberis approached the Supreme Court on appeal challenging the High Court decision to remove his urgent application, but lost again. 

At the lower court, Justice Joseph Mafusire had ruled that the relief sought by Katsimberis was not urgent and, without hearing any substantive arguments, struck the matter off the list, confirming the preliminary objections of Mr Sharpe’s lawyer, who warned the judge that the matter was once dealt with by a different judge, but smuggled back to the court disguised as a completely different matter.