Supreme court of appeal of South Africa – Judgment 25 March 2020

One day before South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown commenced, Auckland Park Theological Seminary (ATS) was informed that we had won our appeal case against the University of Johannesburg, in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The previous judgment by the Gauteng Division of the High Court was therefor set aside.

The appeal of ATS against the order of the full court, Gauteng Division of the High Court, that proceeded in trial before Judges Victor, Van Oosten (with Carelse concurring) and Wright, was upheld with costs.  The previous order, of the said full court, is set aside and substituted with: “The plaintiff’s (University of Johannesburg) claim is dismissed with costs.”

“There was nothing in the lease itself that showed that Auckland Park Theological Seminary’s rights under the lease rights were not intended to be ceded.  The University of Johannesburg sought to meet that difficulty by adducing oral evidence, under the guise that such evidence was being introduced as to context.  Properly construed, however, such evidence was introduced to add to, vary or contradict the general words of the lease.  By virtue of the integration or parol evidence rule, such evidence was plainly inadmissible and should have been disallowed by Victor J” (The supreme court of Appeal of South Africa Judgment case no. 1160/2018 pp 5/6).