The Livingstone High Court has thrown out an application to Stay the execution of its earlier Judgment to squash the appointment of an Interim Business Rescue Administrator for Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
In a ruling dated 9th September 2024, the Livingstone Court ruled that there was no remedy to warrant a stay of execution.
“Additionally, this Court is not convinced that the refusal to grant a stay where there is nothing to stay, will render the appeal an academic exercise.”
Kalenga’s proxy, Mr. John Musheta, applied to stay, or suspend, the dismissal of their case and the squashing of the appointment of an Administrator pending their alleged appeal to the Court of Appeal.
In trying to suspend the Administrator’s dismissal, lawyers for the applicant, Lewis Nathan Advocates, tried to argue to the court that “the grounds of appeal had high prospects of success as they were anchored on points of law and no prejudice would be occasioned.”
Lewis Nathan Advocates emphasised the argument that the Court should grant the Applicant a Stay of Execution as the Ruling was capable of being enforced.
On 15th April 2024, Lewis Nathan Advocates and Bernard Kang’ombe Associates obtained an ex parte order to place Sun Pharmaceuticals under supervision and commence business rescue proceedings under the Corporate Insolvency Act. They intended to appoint Treshod Kabanga as Business Rescue Administrator via a default Judgment after the Ndola High Court stayed his ex parte appointment as Provisional Liquidator on 2nd April 2024.
They attempted to secretly place Sun Pharmaceuticals in business administration and had it not been thwarted, the Solicitor General could have used the Administration Order to syphon off the 117 million Swiss francs owed to Sun Pharmaceuticals.
But Livingstone High Court Judge Hon. Mbila Wina ruled in favour of the owners of Sun Pharmaceuticals, as in their previous successful cases. The Sadhu’s, in part, relied upon the law as found in the case of Hakainde Hichilema and Others vs the Government of the Republic of Zambia.
It is clear that Lewis Nathan Advocates attempted to sustain the earlier ex-parte order in order to keep the scheme viable, which was designed to syphon the judgment debt owed to the Sadhus, the owners. Thre goal was to ensure that by the time the wheels of Justice inevitably dismissed their Appeal, the judgment debt due to the actual beneficaries, would have been pillaged. This would included the expenditure of millions in the ‘professional fees’ of the Administrator, which would have been safe from reimbursement, even if the Kalenga’s lost in the Court of Appeal.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Lewis Nathan and Advocates on 15th April 2024, obtained an Ex-parte Order on behalf of a Mr. John Musheta, an alleged former employee of Sun Pharmaceuticals, to attempt to appoint Zambia’s Administrator General as Business Rescue Administrator of Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited.
The Ex-parte Order obtained appointing the Administrator General as Interim Business Rescue Administrator was dubiously not served on the Shareholders and Directors of Sun Pharmaceuticals.
Source: Lusakatimes
