Curbing Vexatious And Abusive Legal Proceedings

In a judgment delivered recently in the matter of The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited ("Standard Bank") & Another v Advertising Digital Services (Pty) Limited ("ADS") & Another, the Pretoria High Court granted an order in favour of Standard Bank in terms of the Vexatious Proceedings Act, 1956 and held that it is improper, abusive and vexatious to refuse to accept the final decisions of a court.

The court took into account that Section 34 of the Constitution entitles everyone to the right to have any dispute resolved by the application of the law decided in a fair public hearing before a court and emphasised that without this right, the Bill of Rights would have no real force. The court quoted with approval the Constitutional Court's judgment in Barkhuizen v Napier, which set out the purpose of Section 34. In Barkhuizen, the court stated the following: "Our democratic order requires an orderly and fair resolution of disputes by courts ... This is fundamental