BULAWAYO – The High Court has set aside the sale of a chrome mining company’s equipment after a Messenger of Court went ahead with an auction despite being told the debt had been settled a day earlier.

In a judgement delivered on April 16, Justice Regis Dembure ruled that the sale in execution of assets belonging to Lonosphere Investments was “null and void,” ordering that the property be returned and the messenger pay punitive legal costs.

The dispute arose after Lonosphere settled a US$12,240 debt on October 23, 2025, owed to a supplier under a Magistrates’ Court judgement. Despite being informed by the creditor’s lawyer before the auction that the debt had been paid and the sale should be stopped, the Messenger of Court in Bindura proceeded to auction the company’s mining equipment the following day.

The assets including a front loader, generator, excavator, and chrome processing plant were sold for just over US$13,000.

Justice Dembure found that once the debt had been settled, there was no legal basis for the sale to proceed.

“The messenger acted on a frolic of his own,” the judge said, adding that continuing with the auction after being notified of payment was “callous and absurd.”

The court heard that the creditor’s lawyer phoned the messenger before the sale, instructing him to halt the process, with written confirmation to follow. The messenger argued he only received written communication after the auction, but the judge said that did not justify ignoring clear verbal instructions.

In addition, the court found serious irregularities in how the execution was conducted. The messenger failed to carry out a mandatory valuation of the attached property, as required by court rules, and sold equipment worth an estimated US$200,000 at a fraction of its value.

Justice Dembure said the failure to value the assets rendered the entire attachment process invalid.

“The rules are peremptory. Non-compliance renders the process a nullity,” he said.

The judge also noted that the prices realised at auction were “unreasonably low” and went uncontested, reinforcing the conclusion that the sale was fundamentally flawed.

Courts are generally reluctant to interfere with sales in execution to preserve confidence in judicial auctions, but Justice Dembure said intervention was justified where there is a “flagrant breach” of the rules leading to injustice.

He ruled that the sale be set aside, declared the debt fully extinguished, and ordered the immediate return of the equipment to Lonosphere.

In a stinging rebuke, the court ordered the messenger to pay costs on an attorney-client scale, reserved for cases involving bad faith or abuse of office.

“The conduct of the first respondent was appalling and a clear abuse of court process,” Justice Dembure said.