Sheriffs pounce on FDH Bank
The Sheriffs Tuesday pounced on FDH Bank Umoyo House Branch and confiscated computers and a printer, forcing the bank to close for some hours but FDH Bank obtained a stay order stopping any seizure of its property.
According to Judiciary Spokesperson, Mlenga Mvula, the computers were confiscated in enforcement of damages of liability in which Maranatha Girls Academy Limited was awarded about K785 million.
This was the loss that the school suffered when the bank failed to give the school three months statutory notice when it advertised in newspapers on July 25, 2012 that it would sell Maranatha Girls Academy Limited for failure to settle a loan that the school got from the bank.
“The confiscation of the computers meant that the bank was closed for a couple of hours before it came here [High Court] and paid the money. Therefore, I can inform the nation that the bank has honoured the judgement and the bank is now open,” said Mvula.
However, the bank through a press release that has been signed by its Head of Marketing, Sobhuza Ngwenya, has faulted the court in the way it executed the order claiming they were not given time to look at the judgment and make appropriate decision before the sheriffs could seize its property, all in a period of less than 24 hours.
“It should be noted that Maranatha Girls academy owes FDH Bank MK28,820, 906. 47. This amount has been outstanding for several years and FDH has been trying to recover this money by selling the collateral that was given as security for this loan.
“However, when FDH advertised the property for sale, Maranatha Girls Academy claimed that the advertisement resulted in the loss of business. This was the basis for the claim under which the whole of this matter is based,” reads the statement.
The statement went further to claim that the bank cannot recover this debt because the Court stopped this process through an injunction that has yet to be lifted.
An order of assessment of damages that was issued on April 4, 2015 signed by assistant registrar at the High Court, Simeon Mdeza, awarded costs of damages to the school.
FDH Bank further claims in the statement that its lawyers tried to immediately get a stay order on the judgment on the same afternoon, 4th April 2016, so that an appeal can be filed with the Court but the court instead ordered to hear the stay order arguments at 13h30 on Tuesday April 5, 2016.
“While FDH was waiting for this process, within one hour of receiving the copy of the judgment, the sheriffs had come at around 10h30 to seize properties. FDH Bank immediately prepared the required payment. When FDH wanted to deliver the payment, the people who seized the properties for FDH were nowhere to be seen,” it reads
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