Lay litigant fined for contempt of court

ONE of Namibia’s most active lay litigants landed in serious trouble with the High Court on Friday, when he was convicted of contempt of court for a second time.

Having been involved in seemingly endless bouts of litigation against the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) over the past years, lay litigant Hendrik Christian now has not only a conviction for contempt of court to show for his efforts, but has also been prohibited from continuing to sue Namfisa in any of Namibia’s courts without prior permission from a judge of the High Court.This is in terms of a judgement by Judge Dave Smuts that was handed down in the High Court on Friday.Judge Smuts held Christian in contempt of court in connection with three court orders which were given in October and November 2009. He sentenced Christian to a fine of N$5 000 or six months’ imprisonment, as well as to a further period of 12 months’ imprisonment, with the latter part of the sentence suspended for a period of five years on condition that Christian is not again convicted of contempt of court during the period of suspension.He will be appealing against Judge Smuts’s decision, Christian said yesterday.The court orders which Judge Smuts found Christian has been flouting prohibited him from continuing with litigation against Namfisa if he has not first paid Namfisa’s legal costs as ordered by the court, and also directed that he may not continue with legal steps against Namfisa until an appeal that Namfisa has lodged with the Supreme Court has been finalised.The court orders flowed from a case in which Christian obtained a default judgement in an amount of over N$2,9 million against Namfisa and its former Chief Executive Officer, Frans van Rensburg, in the High Court on September 7 2007. Christian sued Namfisa and Van Rensburg for that amount, claiming they had unlawfully interfered with his right to do business as an insurance agent.The default judgement was rescinded, with Christian’s agreement, on October 5 2007.Christian however returned to the High Court with an urgent application in which he claimed that he had been fraudulently induced by Namfisa and Van Rensburg to consent to the rescission of the default judgement. That application failed. Christian then proceeded to launch a succession of applications against Namfisa in connection with the initial case.Namfisa finally retaliated by lodging a case with the court in which it was asking that Christian be held in contempt of court, that his pending applications against Namfisa be permanently stayed and that he be prohibited from instituting any legal proceedings against Namfisa unless a judge of the High Court allows him to do so.From the multiplicity of applications which ensued after the default judgement had been rescinded it is clear that Christian did not consider himself bound by the order that rescinded the judgement, Judge Smuts commented in Friday’s ruling.He noted that Christian tried to justify his conduct in conflict with the court orders issued against him by claiming that the orders were void or nullities for a variety of reasons.Such an attitude cannot be tolerated, Judge Smuts indicated: ‘Even in a single instance of conduct in conflict with a court order, there can be no room for litigants to flout an order because they consider it to be wrong or a nullity.’Judge Smuts also stated: ‘The paramountcy accorded to the rule of law in the Namibian Constitution underlines the importance to be attached to the obligation on every person to obey a court order unless and until that order is discharged or set aside.’The judge added that contempt is a serious matter. ‘(A)dherence to court orders is vital to the administration of justice and disregard of orders, particularly on this scale, cannot be tolerated,’ he added.Christian was also convicted of contempt of court in December 2008, but received a wholly-suspended sentence from Judge Kato van Niekerk on that occasion.

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