Judgment No. SC 21/2018
Civil Appeal No. SC 89/16
2. The reasonableness of the explanation for the delay; and
3. The prospects of success on appeal.
I now proceed to consider the three requirements in sequence.
The Extent and Reasonableness of the Explanation for Delay
The judgment sought to be appealed against is dated 23 December 2015 but was
issued to the applicant on 25 January 2016. Rule 30 of the Supreme Court Rules 1964 requires
that where leave to appeal is not necessary the aggrieved party must appeal to this court within
15 days of the date of judgment.
The applicant’s explanation for delay is that despite frequent enquiries with her
erstwhile Legal Practitioners she was consistently told that judgment was not yet ready. She
only received notification that the judgment was now ready for collection on 19 January 2016.
Her erstwhile Legal Practitioners did not receive the notification timeously because the Law
Firm had closed for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
It was her submission that when she received the letter advising her that judgment
was ready for collection, she promptly consulted her current Legal Practitioners and made
arrangements to travel from Gweru to Harare to collect the judgment. She however only
managed to collect a copy of the judgment from the Registrar of the High Court on
25 January 2016.
Having received a copy of the judgment on the 25 January she only filed this
application on 23 February 2016 which is almost a month after receipt of a copy of the
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