- A defendant has been ordered to pay punitive legal costs after losing a late procedural challenge.
- The civil lawsuit stems from allegations that he shot his love rival after discovering him with his girlfriend.
- The High Court ruled the damages claim must now proceed on its merits.
A procedural battle over a missing page has ended with a costly defeat for a man accused of shooting his love rival. The High Court in Mahikeng ordered him to pay attorney and client costs for delaying a R1.8 million civil damages lawsuit.
Judge President RD Hendricks ruled that Tshepo William Galetlhobogwe filed his second exception outside the strict time limits set by the Uniform Rules of Court, and did so without asking for condonation. The court found that his late challenge could not stand and cleared the way for the damages action brought by Orapeleng Pennel Phaka to continue.
Shooting claim sparked the lawsuit
The lawsuit comes from a dramatic confrontation in Setlagole village on 12 March 2022. Phaka says he went to visit his girlfriend at her family home and found her having sexual intercourse with Galetlhobogwe. The discovery led to a fight between the two men, during which Galetlhobogwe allegedly fled the house naked.
According to Phaka, the confrontation did not end there. He claims Galetlhobogwe returned a short time later carrying a firearm and shot him in the back as he walked away from the property. Phaka survived, had surgery to remove the bullet, and is now suing for R1.8 million for trauma, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and future medical expenses.
The allegations have not yet been decided by the court and are still the subject of the pending civil action.
A missing page became an expensive dispute
Instead of filing a plea to the damages claim, Galetlhobogwe raised an exception, arguing that the summons disclosed no cause of action because paragraphs 4.4 to 4.11 of the particulars of claim were missing.
The court found that the problem was not with the claim itself, but with the copying of the court papers. The missing paragraphs had been printed on the reverse side of the first page and were left out by mistake.
Phaka's attorneys offered to provide a complete copy of the summons, but the offer was refused. Rather than accepting the corrected documents, Galetlhobogwe stuck with the procedural challenge.
Hendricks says the rules are clear
The first exception later lapsed after it was not set down within the prescribed period. Galetlhobogwe withdrew it, but immediately filed a second exception raising the same complaint.
Judge Hendricks said this approach ignored the Uniform Rules, which require a litigant who misses the time limits to apply for condonation. Because no condonation application was ever brought, the second exception was fatally out of time.
The judge rejected the argument that simply withdrawing the first exception allowed the defendant to start the process again, finding that the procedural deadlines remained binding.
Plaintiff should not pay for unnecessary delays
Phaka asked the court to go even further by ordering Galetlhobogwe's attorneys to pay costs personally, arguing that the repeated exception was an abuse of process.
Judge Hendricks did not make a personal costs order, but decided that ordinary costs would be unfair to Phaka. He ruled that Phaka should not be left out of pocket for litigation that unnecessarily prolonged the case and awarded costs on the punitive attorney and client scale.
The court ordered Phaka to serve a complete copy of the summons within 10 court days. Galetlhobogwe must then file his plea within 15 court days, allowing the R1.8 million damages lawsuit to finally proceed on its merits.
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