Judgment No. SC 24/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 455/16 a court can adjudicate on issues not raised on the pleadings even when no amendment has been applied for. 31.1 In Collen v Rietfontein Engineering Works 1948 (1) SA 413 (A), 433, CENTLIVRES JA, referring to an issue not raised on the pleadings but fully canvassed at the trial, said: ”This court, therefore, has before it all the materials on which it is able to form an opinion, and this being the position it would be idle for it not to determine the real issue which emerged during the course of the trial.“ 31.2 Further in Middleton v Carr 1949 (2) SA 374 (A) at 385, SCHREINER JA, in similar vein, stated: “Where there has been full investigations of a matter, that is, where there is no reasonable ground for thinking that further examination of the facts might lead to a different conclusion, the court is entitled to, and generally should, treat the issue as if it had been expressly and timeously raised.” 31.3 In Sager’s Motors (Pvt) Ltd v Patel 1968 (2) RLR 267 (A), Lewis AJA accepted that the above remarks correctly reflected the position in this country. At page 274 A – B he stated: ”The ratio decidendi of the cases … referred to above is that where there has been a full and thorough investigation into all the circumstances of the case and a party has had every facility to place all the facts before the trial court, the court will not decline to adjudicate on an issue thus fully canvassed simply because the pleadings have not explicitly covered it.“ 31.4 The above remarks were cited with approval by this Court in Guardian Security Services (Pvt) Ltd v ZBC 2002 (1) ZLR (S), 5 D – H, 6 A-B. That a court can determine an issue that is fully canvassed but not pleaded is therefore now settled in this jurisdiction. [32] Implicit in the submissions by the respondent, both a quo and in this court, is the suggestion that, although not pleaded, the existence of a contract of depositum was established on the evidence adduced before the court a quo. 16