KVV Inc
  • About Us
    • Meet The Team
      • Staff Photos
    • KVV Masters
    • Blog
  • Registration Process
    • I Am a Buyer
    • I Am a Seller
    • I Am An Agent
  • KVV Training Centre
  • KVV TV
  • KVV Cares
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • PAIA Manual
    • POPI Policy
  • +27 12 006 5171

Don’t Lose Your Claim to Prescription – Know the Law!

Home / Blog / Uncategorized / Don’t Lose Your Claim to Prescription – Know the Law!
February 12, 2018
Uncategorized

“Ignorantia iuris nocet” (old Roman proverb meaning “Not knowing the law is harmful”)

Most of us know how important it is to sue our debtors well before prescription permanently takes away our right to claim.

But what if you did nothing until it was too late because you didn’t even know you had a claim in the first place? As a recent Constitutional Court illustrates, the answer depends on what the nature of your ignorance in this regard is.

 

A damages claim for unlawful arrest

  • An illiterate resident of a rural area was arrested and detained by police for four or five days.
  • He only became aware that his arrest had been unlawful years later when discussing the matter with his neighbour (an attorney). When he then sued the Minister of Police for R350,000 in damages, the Minister raised the defence of prescription.
  • The Court held that in this particular case the claim had indeed prescribed. Central to this decision was the question of the whether the claimant’s ignorance of his right to claim was factual or legal.

 

If your ignorance is factual…

Prescription only starts to run when you have “knowledge of the identity of the debtor and of the facts from which the debt arises”.

So ignorance of the facts underlying your claim will delay prescription until you become aware of them. Just note that you can’t act unreasonably here – you are “deemed to have such knowledge if [you] could have acquired it by exercising reasonable care.”

 

But what about ignorance of legal consequences?

The claimant here did not, he said, know that he had a legal remedy against the Minister until it was too late. He didn’t know the law around the 48 hour limit on detention. He was “innocent, ignorant and uninformed about the legal conclusions or consequences of facts” in his possession.

That ignorance – that the police’s action was “wrongful and actionable” – was, held the Court, not ignorance of a “fact” but ignorance of a “legal conclusion”. And since ignorance of the law doesn’t stop prescription running, his claim had prescribed.

 

Your remedy

That sounds like hard law and perhaps it is in an unfortunate case such as this, but the reality is that such time limits are necessary to bring “certainty and stability to social and legal affairs”. The highest Court in the land has spoken – you can’t hide behind ignorance of your legal rights when it comes to prescription.

There’s only one remedy – don’t delay in getting legal advice!

 

 

© LawDotNews

Share
Previous Post
Plot-and-Plan: Great Option, Just Beware the Building Deadline
Next Post
Employees be Warned! A Conflict of Interest Can Get You Dismissed
Recent Posts
  • KVV | A Note from our Director
  • Buying and Selling Property: Who Pays What Costs?
  • Bodies Corporate: Forcing Access to Units, and Round Robin Resolutions
  • Verbal Agreements – Not Much Good, But Lots of Bad and Ugly
  • Trusts on Divorce: Are You Stuck with an Ex-Spouse as Trustee?
Contact Info

Ground Floor, Block D, Jigsaw Park 7 Einstein Road Highveld Techno Park, Centurion
Phone: +27 87 351 2022
Fax: (012) 655-1053

Get Directions
Archive
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • April 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
Categories
  • Bank And Financial
  • Business
  • Contract
  • Corporate
  • Criminal Law
  • Debt
  • Debt recovery
  • Delict and Civil Claims
  • Delit / Civil Claims
  • Employment and Labour Law
  • Employment Law
  • Family Law
  • General Interest
  • Information Technology Law / Cyber Law
  • Insolvency
  • Insolvency / liquidation
  • KVV News
  • Litigation
  • News
  • Property
  • Property Law
  • Road Traffic
  • Tax
  • Trusts
  • Uncategorized
  • Website Of The Month
  • Wills and Estates
Pages
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Blog Archive
  • Blog Classic
  • Contact Us
  • Cost Calculator
  • How We Work
  • I Am a Buyer
  • I Am a Seller
  • I Am An Agent
  • KVV Inc – Your Property Partner
  • KVV TV
  • Master Lounge
  • Meat the Team
  • Meet The Team
  • Registration Process
  • Shortcodes
  • Staff Photos
  • Testimonials
  • Training Centre

Designed by eMSDigital Group © 2021. All Rights Reserved

  • About Us
  • Registration Process
  • KVV Training Centre
  • KVV TV
  • KVV Cares
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
    • Meet The Team
      • Staff Photos
    • KVV Masters
    • Blog
  • Registration Process
    • I Am a Buyer
    • I Am a Seller
    • I Am An Agent
  • KVV Training Centre
  • KVV TV
  • KVV Cares
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • PAIA Manual
    • POPI Policy