Cape Town - In a tug of war maintenance battle, advocate Adrian Samuels - ex-husband of high court Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe - has been granted leave to appeal against a three-month imprisonment sentence for reneging on maintenance fees.
Samuels, a practising advocate, was granted leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeal in a matter that arose out of a maintenance order made in the Western Cape High Court pursuant to a long-standing and acrimonious matrimonial dispute.
According to the judgment, the central question of the appeal was whether Samuels should be committed to prison for three months for contempt of court, as a result of his failure to make payment in terms of the maintenance order.
The litigation battles comes after Salie-Hlophe was taken to court by her 21-year-old estranged daughter for maintenance.
Samuels and Salie-Hlophe had divorced in 2013 and pursuant to this was ordered to pay a contribution towards maintenance however, according court documents, he had not paid a sum of R138 413.90 over a period of time during which Salie-Hlophe attempted numerous times to recover these monies from him.
Samuels however argued that he had only owed R20 000 for outstanding school fees which should be paid to the school and not Salie-Hlophe “who, at best, had a claim of unjustified enrichment against him”.
It was Samuels’ submission that the late payments of fees was due to the Covid-19 pandemic which “had ‘profoundly diminished’ his financial situation”.
The litigation battle had also included the re-issuing of a writ of execution against a Range Rover vehicle of Samuels after submitting reasons for reneging payments due to “precarious financial circumstances”.
“The appellant handed over an affidavit stating that he had sold the Range Rover and it had not been in his possession since December 17, 2020.
“He refused to inform the sheriff to whom it had been sold or the whereabouts of the vehicle. An eNatis inquiry, conducted on February 22 2021, revealed that the appellant was still the registered owner. Salie-Hlophe alleged that this was a pattern of behaviour that she had previously borne the brunt of,” the judgment read.
Judge of Appeal, Caroline Nicholls said: “Despite being an advocate practising mainly in criminal law, Samuels stated that he was unable to secure the services of a legal team before March 1, 2021.
“It is inexplicable why he was unable to secure the services of a legal team before March 1, 2021.
“In any event, he had an attorney throughout. It can safely be assumed that he was not oblivious to the consequences of failing to comply with a court order.
Requests to Salie-Hlophe’s legal representatives for a postponement were turned down, forcing him to bring a substantive application for postponement on the day of the hearing...
“The attempt to evade payment of maintenance orders is particularly egregious as it also undermines the best interest of the child principle.
“If court orders in respect of maintenance are habitually evaded with relative impunity, not only is the justice system discredited but also the interests of the child are not adequately protected.
“Courts are enjoined to be alive to recalcitrant maintenance defaulters who use legal processes to side-step their obligations towards their children,” said Nicholls.
Samuels was given 15 days to file an answering affidavit in the application for committal.
Cape Times