I was serverd summons by the sheriff to ...

Asked by Mr Legal Seeker on 12-07-2024 10:09:28
Question posted in the General Law category relating to Gauteng

I was serverd summons by the sheriff to appear in court on a civil matter Mortgage/bond matter on the 25th of July for a default judgment application. On reading them i realised that the plaintif mixed up some of the pages ( stapled together) in the documents with a matter for another individual they are summoning. So i have summons which are mixed partly mine and partly another personi don't know. It is thus confusing to read. 

1.What steps can i take for the plaintiff to rectify this issue

2. In the absence of understandble summons i can not prepare my defence. What should i do on the date of the trial or before the trial so that the court knows i will not be read to proceed with my defense

Message from the Lawyer

Posted by Att. Patrick on 12-07-2024 12:52:25

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

Please keep in mind that our discussions is for general information purposes only. Our engagement on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. 

What you need to do is to write a letter to the plaintiff's attorneys explaining exactly that, that there are pages missing from your summons and pages which are from another matter, and that you require a FULL and complete summons so that you can defend the case and also deal with the application for default judgment. 

You should set out in the letter that if they do not immediately give you a FULL and complete summons, you will appear in court on 25 July 2024 and explain this to the Judge, and you will ask that the application for default judgment be dismissed because (1) a proper summons was not served on you, and (2) you could not defend the claim properly.

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