“Caveat Subscriptor” “Let the signer beware,” cautions this legal principle, which holds you to the terms of any contract you sign because the law presumes, unless you can prove otherwise, that you knew and understood what you were agreeing to. Excuses like “I didn’t...

"Good fences make good neighbours." (Proverb) Two neighbours in Thornton, Cape Town, shared a boundary wall. One kept three dogs, including a watchdog named King. On the Day of Reconciliation in 2018, while the owner was out at a birthday breakfast, King bit the man...

"A promise made is a debt unpaid." (Robert W. Service) During wage negotiations in 2021, a pharmaceutical company told its employees that it intended to stop paying a 13th cheque and replace it with a performance-based bonus. Those who agreed would receive a 5.5%...

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott) The company that runs Cape Town's V&A Waterfront appointed a chief information officer in October 2015. A year later, a credit check contradicted something she had said at her...

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” (From George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess) Summertime brings long sunny days, leisurely holidays, family gatherings, and a property market waking up to a new season. It’s a great and exciting time to buy your dream home but be sure...

“Lex domicilii matrimonii” This old legal concept, meaning literally “the law of the domicile of the marriage”, addresses a fundamental question facing courts when marriages involve multiple jurisdictions: “which country’s laws apply to this marriage?” If, for...

“Good fences make good neighbours.” (Robert Frost) The neighbours, in the affluent suburb of Bakoven, had been locked in an acrimonious dispute for almost two decades when CCTV cameras became the latest point of contention. The cameras installed at one property had a...

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” (Benjamin Franklin) On New Year’s Day in 2012, the rider was travelling along Airport Road (MR347), between George Airport and Blanco, when his motorcycle struck a pothole approximately 600mm wide. He lost control,...

“It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV.” (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr) A couple may marry in one country, live in several others, hold different nationalities and eventually settle in South...

One ring to rule them all.” (JRR Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings) When it comes to making sure that you get to choose who inherits what from your estate, there really is only “one will to rule them all,” because our law recognises only one type of testamentary will:...