Wightman t/a JW Construction v Headfour
Wightman t/a JW Construction v Headfour (Pty) Ltd and Another is an important case in South African law, heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal on February 27, 2008. Mpati DP, Cameron JA, Heher JA, Ponnan JA and Mhlantla AJA presided. Judgment was handed down on March 10, 2008. Counsel for the appellant was EJJ Spamer; SC Goddard appeared for the respondents. The appellant's attorneys were Kyriacos & Co, Cape Town, and Webbers, Bloemfontein. The respondents' Attorneys were EQM Hunter, Cape Town, and Honey Attorneys, Bloemfontein. The case was an appeal from a decision of the full bench in the Cape Provincial Division (Thring J, Blignaut J and Bozalek J) regarding spoliation. The court considered, first, the requirements for a mandament van spolie. What was required was unlawful dispossession of property, not necessarily accompanied by violence or fraud, provided that the property was taken without the consent of the person dispoiled, and also illicitly, in a manner not countenanced by the law. The court also dealt with the question of whether or not possession of the keys to property could be considered to amount to possession of that property. It found that to make duplicate keys available to another does