High Court of South Africa KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg - 2017 November

3 judgments

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3 judgments
Citation
Judgment date
November 2017
Interlocutory refusal to produce unredacted sales and licence documents was overturned; confidentiality alone does not bar Rule 35 discovery.
Civil procedure – discovery – Rule 35(3),(7),(12) – confidentiality is not prima facie privilege – producing party must establish legal privilege. Discovery – relevance – objective test whether documents may advance applicant’s case or damage opponent’s case; redaction of material portions impermissible. Appealability – interests of justice standard may permit interlocutory appeals; appellate review where discretion exercised on wrong appreciation of facts. Trade secrets/public domain – documentary proof (sales, licences, purchaser details) may be decisive to determine whether information entered the public domain.
17 November 2017
Reported
Private estate rules imposing speed limits and restricting domestic workers’ access to public roads conflicted with the NRTA and were invalid.
Public roads – estate internal roads held to be public roads – regulation under National Road Traffic Act (NRTA). NRTA (ss56–59; s57(6)) – exclusive statutory control over traffic signs and speed limits; authorisation required for private bodies to display signs or police traffic. Contract vs public law – private contractual rules cannot displace statutory traffic regulation affecting the public. Domestic-employee rules – restrictions on movement, access hours and biometric/access-card regime unreasonably infringe employees’ rights. Relief – conduct rules declared invalid but invalidity suspended for 12 months to permit lawful authorisation; costs awarded.
17 November 2017
A s 11(d) three-year prescription is computed by the civil rule; Interpretation Act and equitable extension were misapplied.
Prescription – s 11(d) Prescription Act – three-year prescriptive period computed by ordinary civil rule (include first day, exclude last day); Interpretation Act s 4 does not govern computation of s 11(d) where statutory language invokes civil computation; Magistrates lack a free-standing just and equitable power to extend or alter statutory prescription; Pleadings requirement – litigant may not raise unpleaded knowledge-of-wrong argument for first time on appeal.
3 November 2017