Lilian Simwinga, a Lusaka resident has sued her ex-employer – Zambia National Commercial Bank [Zanaco] for failing to honour a contract by holding onto a certificate of title for a house that the plaintiff bought from the bank or that the court orders the bank to refund K1.5 million as refund.
Details of the matter are that Simwinga who was an employee of Zanaco was offered to purchase a house by way of a mortgage which was priced at K95, 000 located in Lilanda Estate No.62 Fir Avenue Lusaka. The house initially belonged to Phield Musonda who had defaulted on a loan giving chance to the plaintiff to buy the house.
Through a contract of sale dated 24 July 2006, the plaintiff purchased the property known as Stand No.62 Fir Avenue Lilanda Estate, Lusaka from Phield Musonda and under Clause 2 of the contract of sale Simwinga’s advocates for the transaction was legal counsel for the defendant.
According to a statement of claim and court documents availed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, in March 2020 the plaintiff was retired and the defendant deducted the mortgage balance from her retirement package thus leaving her with no outstanding amount due for the property.
However,it has been almost 2 years since the plaintiff’s retirement and outstanding balance deducted from her retirement package but the certificate of title has not been released to the plaintiff despite not having any outstanding amount on the property.
Because of the aforesaid reasons, the plaintiff has suffered loss and now claims an order of specific performance that the defendant completes the conveyance transaction within 30 days so that the Certificate of Title relating to Stand No.62 Fir Avenue Lilanda, Lusaka is registered in the plaintiff’s names.
Simwinga who is the plaintiff claims that “In the alternative, an offer to the plaintiff of another property at the current market value and an order that the defendant pays the plaintiff the amount of K1,500 000 being the refund for the K95, 000 initially paid for the property adjusted for inflation”.
The plaintiff is also claiming damages for loss of use of the Certificate of Title for the period March 2020 to date, damages for inconvenience, any other relief that the court may deem fit and interest on all amount found due and costs of these proceedings.
