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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
MDC-T spokesperson and Harare lawyer Mr Douglas Mwonzora has been implicated in a fake court documents scandal that has spilled into the High Court.
The former Nyanga North legislator is being sued for US$30 000 by a client, Mr Winston Mano, who accuses him of lying that he initiated court proceedings on his behalf in a civil matter in 2006 when he did not.
He allegedly drafted summons and had them stamped with a High Court date stamp through unlawful means.
Mr Mwonzora allegedly appended a fake High Court number when the summons were never filed with the court.
Mr Mano wanted Mwonzora to assist him in effecting transfer of ownership of a property he had bought into his name.
Mr Mwonzora showed him summons with case number HC1060/06 as proof that he had instituted the claim.
The scam was unearthed last year by Mr Mano’s new lawyer, Musunga and Associates, who made a follow-up on the matter at the High Court.
They discovered that HC1060/06 was a number officially allocated to a different case involving Standard Chartered and Trafan Enterprises and that the summons were never filed at the High Court as alleged.
According to the summons issued against the lawyer this year, the client instructed him to institute civil proceedings in 2006 to compel Mr Gerald Kuipa to facilitate the transfer of ownership of a Borrowdale property he sold to Mr Mano.
Mwonzora’s conduct, according to the summons, prejudiced Mr Mano US$150 000, being the market value of the Borrowdale property.
Mwonzora reportedly made an undertaking to pay US$30 000 to Mr Mano as damages for the prejudice suffered by plaintiff from his engagement.
He proposed a payment plan through his law firm Mwonzora & Associates.
In the payment plan, Mr Mwonzora proposed to settle the debt by paying US$5 000 monthly from August 2013, which he did not honour.
Mwonzora and his law firm were cited as first and second defendants respectively in the summons.
Mr Mano wants the two to pay the US$30 000 with 5% interest calculated from August last year to the date of payment in full.
Mr Mano also wants the court to award him legal costs on a higher scale.
Mwonzora and his law firm are yet to respond to the case.
Online Reporter