After pilot Basie Wessels died in a gyrocopter crash on his Limpopo game reserve in 2008‚ his friend and executor Barend du Toit promised Wessels’ widow that the estate would make maintenance payments for their young daughter.
But for six years he refused to hand over a cent.
Eventually the widow‚ Elsabe Vermeulen‚ took him to the maintenance court‚ which ordered him to hand over R720‚000 in back payments‚ as well as R10‚000 a month. But after two monthly payments in 2014‚ Du Toit stopped paying again.
He then approached the Western Cape High Court‚ arguing that the maintenance court had no right to order payments from a deceased estate‚ and when he lost that case he approached the Supreme Court of Appeal.
On Monday‚ five appeal judges threw out Du Toit’s appeal‚ called his stance “unconscionable” and ordered him to pay all the costs of the appeal personally‚ rather than out of Wessels’ estate.
“The appeal was pursued with no regard to the child’s best interests or its prospects of success‚” the judges said.
Wessels‚ 64‚ the founder of Mabalingwe Game Reserve‚ died with photographer Lauren McCall when their gyrocopter crashed in flames on the reserve near Bela-Bela.
In their finding‚ the appeal judges said Du Toit “had been a family friend of the deceased and was auditor to (his) businesses and a trustee of the family trust“.
Despite promising maintenance payments‚ he ignored requests for money and eventually Vermeulen took him to the maintenance court in Riversdale‚ Western Cape.
In his Cape Town High Court appeal‚ Du Toit argued that the claim had been made under the wrong act of parliament‚ an assertion the appeal judges said was “unduly technical“.
'Best friend' keeps widow's cash for six years
After pilot Basie Wessels died in a gyrocopter crash on his Limpopo game reserve in 2008‚ his friend and executor Barend du Toit promised Wessels’ widow that the estate would make maintenance payments for their young daughter.
But for six years he refused to hand over a cent.
Eventually the widow‚ Elsabe Vermeulen‚ took him to the maintenance court‚ which ordered him to hand over R720‚000 in back payments‚ as well as R10‚000 a month. But after two monthly payments in 2014‚ Du Toit stopped paying again.
He then approached the Western Cape High Court‚ arguing that the maintenance court had no right to order payments from a deceased estate‚ and when he lost that case he approached the Supreme Court of Appeal.
On Monday‚ five appeal judges threw out Du Toit’s appeal‚ called his stance “unconscionable” and ordered him to pay all the costs of the appeal personally‚ rather than out of Wessels’ estate.
“The appeal was pursued with no regard to the child’s best interests or its prospects of success‚” the judges said.
Wessels‚ 64‚ the founder of Mabalingwe Game Reserve‚ died with photographer Lauren McCall when their gyrocopter crashed in flames on the reserve near Bela-Bela.
In their finding‚ the appeal judges said Du Toit “had been a family friend of the deceased and was auditor to (his) businesses and a trustee of the family trust“.
Despite promising maintenance payments‚ he ignored requests for money and eventually Vermeulen took him to the maintenance court in Riversdale‚ Western Cape.
In his Cape Town High Court appeal‚ Du Toit argued that the claim had been made under the wrong act of parliament‚ an assertion the appeal judges said was “unduly technical“.
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