Cooper NO en Andere v Die Meester en 'n Ander, an important case in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n property

South African property law

South African property law regulates the "rights of people in or over certain objects or things." It is concerned, in other words, with a person's ability to undertake certain actions with certain kinds of objects in accordance with South African law....

 law, was heard in the Appellate Division on November 7, 1991

1991 in South Africa

-January:* 9 January - Black children are admitted to schools previously reserved for Whites only.* 12 January - 45 mourners are killed during an attack on a funeral vigil for an African National Congress member...

, with judgment handed down on March 5, 1992

1992 in South Africa

-February:* 3 February - President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress leader are jointly awarded the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize at the Unesco headquarters in Paris...

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Judgment

The Insolvency Act contains an exhaustive list of priorities of statutory preferences on insolvency. The court found that a special notarial bond over specified movable property, when that property has remained in the possession of the mortgagor until the sequestration of his estate, is not included in this list and accordingly does not confer a statutory preference in favour of the mortgagee. It follows, held the court, that the mortgagee has no preference above other concurrent creditors in respect of the free residue.

The decision in the Orange Free State

Orange Free State

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...

 Provincial Division, in Cooper NO en Andere v Die Meester en 'n Ander, was thus reversed.

Cases

• Cooper NO en Andere v Die Meester en 'n Ander 1991 (3) SA 158.
• Cooper NO en Andere v Die Meester en 'n Ander 1992 (3) SA 60 (A).

Statutes

• Insolvency Act 24 of 1936.
• Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998.