Body Corporate Palm Lane v Masinge 2013 JDR 2332 (GNP)

Abstract

In Body Corporate Palm Lane v Masinge (2013 JDR 2332 (GNP)) the court exercised its discretion in terms of section 12(1) of the Insolvency Act 24 of 1936 against the granting of a final order for sequestration even though all the requirements for the granting of such order in terms of section 12(1) were satisfied. The court thus came to the assistance of the respondent-debtor by allowing him the opportunity to pay off his debt rather than have his estate sequestrated and being obliged to surrender his assets and thus also being subjected to the stigma and restrictions of insolvency. In this respect, it is to be noted that it is currently a worldwide trend to accommodate insolvent or over-indebted debtors and to retreat from the principle of maximising returns for creditors as the only objective of consumer insolvency regimes. The following observation in a recent report of the World Bank is pertinent in this regard (see Working Group on the Treatment of the Insolvency of Natural Persons Report on the treatment of the insolvency of natural persons Insolvency and Creditor/ Debtor Regimes Task Force, World Bank 2012 par 393 - available at http://bit.ly/Oft3hp - hereafter the World Bank Report).