The South African civil litigation process forms two main
branches: application and action proceedings. Provisional Sentence
Summons is a mechanism that forms part of action proceedings and
requires specific criteria to be met in order to utilise it.
Overview
The provisional sentence summons mechanism is utilised in
instances where the defaulting party cannot deny liability. In
other words, a provisional sentence summons may be used to initiate
the litigious process if the claim is based on a liquid document or
a liquidated sum of money, claims for ejectment and claims for the
delivery of specified immovable property.
A liquid document refers to a document
whereby the mere assessment of the document will indicate liability
on the part of the debtor. An acknowledgement of debt which
includes an unequivocal admission of liability by the debtor, is a
liquid document. In other words, the courts would not require the
leading of other evidence to prove liability as
