Land Claims Court Acting Judge President Yasmin Meer has been found to have violated prescripts of the law in her judgment that nailed lawyers for pursuing what she termed a “vexatious and frivolous” restitution application.
The Supreme Court of Appeal has found that she slapped advocates Mluleki Chithi and Sandile Cele as attorney firm Sinama and Associates Inc with a punitive costs order without following due process.
The lawyers represented the Luhlwini Mchunu Community in a land restitution application. The Mchunus had sought restoration of prime farming land in KZN’s Lions River area.Judge Meer made adverse findings against Chithi, Cele and Sinama for pursuing the application on the basis that the Mchunus constituted a community.
She labelled the application as “vexatious and frivolous” and ordered that they should not be paid. The State footed the legal bill for the Mchunus. The lawyers have enjoyed a last laugh against Judge Meer. The SCA ruled in favour of their appeal against her non-payment order. In an unanimous judgment delivered last week, Judge Selewe Mothle found merit in the lawyers’ submissions.