Daybreak Awarded Over R100 Million in Fight Against Previous Attorneys

Johannesburg, 25 September 2024: On 30 July 2024, the Honourable Judge Nyathi, in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria, handed down an award of over R 100 million in favour of Afgri Poultry (Pty) Ltd T/A Daybreak Farms (“Daybreak”) against Malahlela & Co. Attorneys (“Malahlela”), a firm of attorneys.

Malahlela had apparently been engaged by a predecessor Board of Daybreak to render legal services to Daybreak and had charged handsomely – and unlawfully – for the privilege.

Daybreak – under new management – began investigating payment demands made by Malahlela, and, when faced by a claim to make payment, launched a counter-application seeking repayment of R 101 502 312.68, with interest thereon and punitive costs.

Daybreak’s monetary claim was not lightly sought. It was the product of extensive consideration of the invoices provided by Malahlela, forensic investigations by forensic experts, and an assessment by Daybreak’s legal team. These processes confirmed that Malahlela had on multiple occasions invoiced Daybreak for impossible and improbable attendances, phantom and duplicated attendances, grossly inflated invoices, over-reaching and over-billing, and invoicing for inexplicable and unmandated attendances.

Faced with a detailed analysis of the unlawful invoicing and billing practices (which analysis, with invoices, spanned hundreds of pages), Malahlela did not oppose Daybreak’s application or file answering papers or attend at Court (despite emailing two days before the hearing to note the technical defences it intended to bring). Daybreak contends that the ineluctable conclusion to be reached is that Malahlela had no true defence to its claim.

Ultimately, after considering the papers (including Malahlela’s “defences”), Judge Nyathi upheld Daybreak’s case in its entirety, awarding Daybreak the entire amount claimed, with interest and legal costs.

This was a vindication of Daybreak’s commitment to good corporate governance and puts to end a significant and unlawful drain of its resources.