Judgment Summaries

Avoid the mistakes of others by reading the latest important court judgment summaries with our unique insights on what action to take.

You need to know about and possibly take action when the courts hand down judgments or cases. It is a critical part of ensuring that your organisation complies with the law. But how are you supposed to monitor all judgments on an ongoing basis to find the relevant ones, read them to understand what the latest judgments deal with, and decide what action you might need to take in response to them?  Impossible? Don’t worry; we do this for you.

We continually monitor and provide plain-language summaries of all judgments or cases related to our focus areas. Our summaries highlight what action you might need to take in response. We do all the hard work for you to save you time.

Judgment summaries

Only some are linked below. To read all previous insights and be alerted to future insights, join the relevant Michalsons programme. You can view the public and the “Members only” ones if you are a member and logged in.

Gerber v PSG Wealth Financial Planning | BEC

The main legal issue involved the court determining whether the investment company (PSG Wealth Financial Planning) had a contractual obligation to protect their client (Gerber) against financial losses caused by cybercrime, specifically when a fraudster hacked the client's email and [...]

Safi v Gascoigne | BEC

In Safi v Gascoigne, Safi sued Gascoigne Randon and Associates, a conveyancing firm, for a loss of R889,308.50 from a business email compromise (BEC).  Who should care about this judgment and why? The public because they need to be aware [...]

Your duty of care regards information security

Every organisation has a duty of care to establish and maintain appropriate information security. The judgment in Hawarden vs ENS illustrates that no modern business can operate properly and lawfully without establishing and maintaining appropriate information security. The facts of [...]

Hartog v Daly | Opening a bank account

In Hartog v Daly, the court held Hartog liable for monies that he paid into a fraudster's bank account. The fraudster unlawfully intercepted an email communication between Hartog and his client by sending Hartog an email with instructions to [...]

Hawarden v Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) | BEC

In Hawarden v Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS), Hawarden succeeded in suing ENS for the loss of R5.5 million because of a Business Email Compromise (BEC). Hawarden was ENS' client.  The court said that ENS owed a general duty of care [...]

Buchler v Minister of SAPS | Search and seizure warrants

In Buchler v Minister of SAPS, Buchler succeeded in having two search and seizure warrants set aside. SAPS and the Hawks seized materials from Buchler's place of business, an internet café. The police believed that Buchler was using the materials [...]

By |2023-04-03T15:19:39+02:00January 5th, 2023|Categories: Cybercrime|Tags: , , , |

Firstrand Bank v Briedenhann | Virtual commissioning

In Firstrand Bank v Briedenhann, the court held that (as a rule) the law does not allow virtual commissioning - a commissioner of oaths should only commission an affidavit by a deponent if the deponent, the document and their signature [...]

Children’s Resource Centre Trust v Pioneer Food | Class Actions

In Children’s Resource Centre Trust v Pioneer Food, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down a landmark judgment setting out the procedural requirements for instituting a class action. The SCA also gave clear guidance on when someone can pursue [...]

By |2022-04-26T10:20:26+02:00April 6th, 2022|Categories: POPI and Data Protection|Tags: , , |

Smuts v Botha (SCA decision) | Freedom of expression

In Smuts v Botha, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned a High Court judgment which ordered Smuts to take down parts of a Facebook post containing Botha's personal information. The SCA held that the information that Smuts published could […]

Botha v Smuts (High Court decision) | Freedom of expression

In Botha v Smuts, the court ordered Smuts to take down parts of a Facebook post containing Botha's personal information. The post had an image of Botha with his minor child, details about his business and his address. The court [...]

Mani v The Information Officer Mintek

In Mani v The Information Officer Mintek, Mani made a request to the Information officer of Mintek in terms of PAIA to determine the source of an email containing defamatory information about her. The court ordered Mintek to provide [...]

By |2022-12-19T11:51:03+02:00January 22nd, 2021|Categories: Access to Information|Tags: , , |

Discovery vs Liberty judgment | Data ownership

The Discovery vs Liberty judgment adds weight to the argument that the data subject and not the responsible party owns their personal data. Data protection law puts the control back in the hands of the data subject. It gives [...]