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1991
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[1991] ZASCA 11
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Photocircuit SA (Pty) Ltd. v Roux NO and Another (473/89) [1991] ZASCA 11 (12 March 1991)
473/89 /mb
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF SOUTH
AFRICA
(APPELLATE
DIVISION)
In the matter between:
PHOTOCIRCUIT S A (PTY) LIMITED
Appellant
and
ADV P E ROUX SC N O
1st Respondent
C E DOUGLASS
2nd
Respondent
CORAM
: HOEXTER, VIVIER, MILNE, KUMLEBEN JJA
et
KRIEGLER AJA
HEARD
: 12 MARCH 1991
DELIVERED
: 12 MARCH 1991
TRANSCRIPT OF EXTEMPORE JUDGMENT DELIVERED IN COURT ON 12 MARCH
1991
HOEXTER JA/
...
1 .
HOEXTER JA:
The appeal is dismissed with costs. Certain unsatisfactory and disquieting
features call for comment.
On 30 November 1990 this court delivered
judgment in the matter of
Photocircuit SA (Pty) Ltd v
P P de
Klerk NO and Others
(the "De Klerk appeal").
The present appellant was
also the appellant in that
case. One of the issues calling for decision in
the De
Klerk appeal was whether in terms of s 23(1) of the
Labour
Relations Act, No 28 of 1956, the Industrial
Council had jurisdiction over
the appellant. After
hearing full argument and considering the
relevant
authorities, this court decided the question against
the
appellant for reasons comprehensively set out in
the written judgment. The issue decided in the De
2/...
2. Klerk appeal was, and is, the only one raised in the present
appeal. On the face of it, the earlier decision disposes of the one
issue in the
present appeal.
The original heads of argument filed on
behalf of
the appellant in this appeal were lodged
before delivery of the De Klerk
judgment. This
morning, however, supplementary heads of argument
were
submitted by
Mr van Graan
, who now appears on behalf of
the
appellant. One reads them with astonishment.
There is no reference to the De
'Klerk judgment: one
phrase obliquely suggests that counsel was aware of
the
earlier judgment when he drafted the supplementary
heads. (During
argument
Mr van Graan
conceded this.)
The single authority referred to
is a text-book on
Administrative Law. Moreover, there is simply nothing
in them to indicate that counsel was aware of the
stare
3/...
3.
decisis
rule as it is to be applied to a decision of
the Appellate Division which is sought to be reversed.
Last but not least,
the submissions in these heads do not attempt any critical analysis of the
reasoning in the De Klerk judgment.
In the main the argument now advanced is no
more than a variation of the theme which was put forward and rejected in that
judgment,
and the submissions as today presented to us are in our judgment
without substance.
This lamentable chronicle of events prompted
Mr Duminy
, who appeared
for the second respondent, to ask that the costs of this hearing be awarded
against the appellant on an attorney and
client scale. If one were certain that
the objectionable aspects of this appeal could be attributed to anything more
than ineptitude
this request would have merited serious
4/...
4. consideration.
G G HOEXTER JA
VIVIER JA )
MILNE JA ) Concurred
KUMLEBEN JA )
KRIEGLER AJA)