Tujoromajo Kasuto
A WALVIS Bay woman is suing the Master of the High Court for the reimbursement of a N$1.8 million estate belonging to her late mother.
This is after the Master of the High Court appointed an executor, Mervin Kozonguizi, who the beneficiaries of the estate claim did not recommend, approve, neither had knowledge of his existence before the appointment.The case was in the High Court last week before Judge Kobus Miller and has been postponed to 2 November for a hearing.
In terms of the order, the defendants must file their heads of argument on or before 12 October, and the applicants before 18 October.
According the applicants lawyer, Uda Nakamhela, of Nakamhela Attorneys, the defendant’s lawyer, Lindrowski Tibinyane, is requesting absolution from the case, which signals a release of guilt, and once approved it amounts to a dismissal of the applicants’ case where it stipulates that the plaintiff did not lead sufficient evidence to support the different elements of their claim.
The defendant’s lawyer is claiming that the plaintiff’s case is poor, thus he will not bring his client for trial. The applicant, Maruzaan Moller, and her brother, claimed that her mother’s estate has suffered damages of about N$ 1,874,357.36, plus interest due to the conduct of the master.On 18 November, 2015, the Master allegedly appointed Kozonguizi, who is the third defendant, as executor of the estate, after Moller had already turned 21.
Whilst through a letter from her lawyers, Nakamhela Attorneys, the applicant had recommended that, on behalf of the heirs of the estate, Raymond Reginald Beukes, the ex-husband of the her mother and father and guardian of the then still minor heirs to the estate of her late mother, Yolandi Dorothia Beukes, should be appointed as the executor of the estate, documents submitted to court reads.
However, due to the parents having already legally been divorced, the High Court did not issue or appoint him as executor. Further, the court had allegedly requested him to provide security for his appointment as executor, to which Nakamhela Attorneys had allegedly informed the Master that there was no funds available to provide the security to the amount of N$ 2,055,000.00 that the Master wanted.
According to court documents, Nakamhela Attorneys then allegedly informed the Master of the High Court in a letter dated 22 April, 2015, that the parents had before the mother’s death reconciled, and were cohabiting again as common law husband and wife, and that the father was caring for the mother during her last days, when she unfortunately succumbed to lupus.
Allegedly then Nakamhela Attorneys had requested the Master to revise the amount required as security, and advised that if the Master could revise the amount, or wait until Moller turned 21-years old on 9 November, 2015, at which point she could be appointed executor, which the Masters was allegedly informed by the lawyers on 26 November, 2015.
Subsequently in January 2016, the lawyers allegedly informed the Master that neither of the family had nominated nor consented to Kozonguizi as executor, six months after the Masters cancelled the appointment and appointed Moller as executor in June 2016.
Furthermore, according to court documents, from July to September 2016, the Master reduced the security provided by Kozonguizi in terms of Section 23 of the Administration of Estate Act, from N$ 2 million to N$ 0.00 16. The reduction of the security by the Master, which amounts to a cancellation of the security, was done without Kozonguizi having accounted for the full amount of the estate as was reported.
To this the applicants claim that Master had no legal basis for reducing the security to N$ 0.00 before Kozonguizi had accounted for the estate.
Moller states that she had no other option to file for legal action again against the defendants to recover the money that was “stolen” from my mother’s estate after numerous failed attempts to communicate with the masters.
