Who is liable?

[chrisc]

In 2008 I sold a car to a lady who did not bother about getting it re-registered. I filled in the yellow form and handed it to Council.

In June 2010 she lent the car to her brother who had an accident when he collided with a (Cape Town) Council lorry. The brother disappeared and is believed to be living in Hermanus. I had met this brother once but did not know him.

On Tuesday, 2 days before subscription, I received a summons asking for R 143000 and citing me as a co-respondent. The sheriff who delivered the summons told me that he could not locate the brother at the given address as he no longer lived there.

There is no Case number on the summons

My attorney advises that it is necessary to enter a plea to defend since Council's attorneys are entitled to sue whomever they choose and can obtain default judgment if the case is not opposed.

I was amazed that these attorneys would scrape the bottom of the barrell so to speak in order to recover monies for Council

 

[Maverick Jester]

My attorney advises that it is necessary to enter a plea to defend since Council's attorneys are entitled to sue whomever they choose and can obtain default judgment if the case is not opposed.

I'm no attorney, but this sounds like rather horrible advice?

You do have some sort of affidavit stating that you sold the vehicle, right?

 

[ToxicBunny]

You handed in the Yellow form... the licensing bureau will have that on their system and should absolve you of any liability what so ever.

 

[lordrage]

In 2008 I sold a car to a lady who did not bother about getting it re-registered. I filled in the yellow form and handed it to Council.

In June 2010 she lent the car to her brother who had an accident when he collided with a (Cape Town) Council lorry. The brother disappeared and is believed to be living in Hermanus. I had met this brother once but did not know him.

On Tuesday, 2 days before subscription, I received a summons asking for R 143000 and citing me as a co-respondent. The sheriff who delivered the summons told me that he could not locate the brother at the given address as he no longer lived there.

There is no Case number on the summons

My attorney advises that it is necessary to enter a plea to defend since Council's attorneys are entitled to sue whomever they choose and can obtain default judgment if the case is not opposed.

I was amazed that these attorneys would scrape the bottom of the barrell so to speak in order to recover monies for Council

First, there has to be a number on the face of the summons. However it is probably just an administrative error on the part of the attorneys suing.

second, yes, serve your notice of intention to defend, they cannot get default judgment if you do this. If you do not, and they get default judgment, you will have to bring a rescission application, and quite frankly, good luck getting past condonation if you were served and chose not to defend. EDIT - then enter your plea.

As to who is liable, I would put all your evidence forward showing that you did indeed sell the vehicle, as if it is still in your name, the onus would be on you to prove it was sold.

 

[MKFrost]

You have to defend the matter whether you want to or not. Failing to do so will lead to the judgement to be taken against you.

People often think that they need not defend a matter and or that they can ignore a matter if they are not guilty. Why should they worry, they are not guilty....

Just think about the irony in this.... You say you are not guilty, you are given the chance to prove that you are not guilty yet you fail to do so. If you do not prove that you are not guilty then your silence/ non-action can be assumed to mean that you are guilty.

So the long and the short of it is that you have little choice but to defend the matter.

I had a civil matter against me last year which I had to defend. In the end it cost me just under R40,000 to defend the summary judgement and to go on to defend the matter. The other party eventually dropped the case as there was no merit in it from the start. The court gave no order in regards to costs as the matter has never been resolved in court as the other party just withdrew.

I am now out of pocket R36,000 and to get that back I now have to sue him again which I'm not planning on doing as it will most probably cost me another R40K odd and he has nothing.

But just goes to show.... not guilty until proven so is a myth....