A Christmas gift for Lennie the Liquidator
Last year, two days before Xmas, Lennie Katz, the liquidations supremo at Edward Nathan Sonnenberg, served summons on Noseweek and its editor Martin Welz for “wrongful defamation” over stories he had written on the Brakspear v Nedgroup and other cases. Welz and Noseweek are defending the action. Here’s the latest from Martin Welz.
Last year, two days before Christmas, attorney Leonard Katz kept a promise that he’d made me two months earlier when I received a gift from him, delivered by the Sheriff of the High Court: a summons for wrongful defamation.
In it, he demands not an apology – as is customary in such cases – but that I pay him R1 million for allegedly having “wrongfully defamed” him by publishing an image of Katz, captioned “The man who stole justice”, on the cover of the July 2014 Noseweek and in two articles inside: one, headlined “Lennie the Liquidator makes mockery of the law”; the other, “Then there’s Brakspear”.
These articles, particularly the Brakspear one, he claims in his summons, wrongfully portray him as inter alia having devised fraudulent schemes; being dishonest; guilty of unprofessional conduct; having subverted the course of justice; being unfit to practise as an attorney; and being prepared to act unlawfully or unprofessionally on behalf of his clients, for money.
Katz’s earlier letter to me (published in nose 182) was prompted by the just-delivered judgment by Judge NF Kgomo in the Brakspear case – which Katz immediately circulated to his colleagues and clients (and me). He saw it as vindication, and (he would have everyone believe) a complete demolition of my reputation, and a refutation of Noseweek’s reports on the Brakspear matter.
In the letter he says, “You are a vindictive and unpleasant man,” and concludes: “With apologies to Bruce Willis, yippie-kai-yay, Martin Welz!” (Willis’s famous words were, of course, “Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker!”).
By having his summons served at my office on 22 December, he was not, I must assume, wishing to be vindictive or unpleasant. Neither was his special instruction to the sheriff (as the latter politely informed my staff) which was to warn me that I had just 10 days to respond, failing which judgment would be taken against me “without further notice”. (Which, as every lawyer would know, was entirely untrue. It being the Christmas court recess, days would only be counted from 15 January onwards.)
If Katz’s festive season shock was “a vindictive, unpleasant” plan to spoil my Christmas, it failed. I was out of cellphone reach and only heard of the summons after the New Year.
As I recall, years back Katz had an urgent high court application served on the office of Ian Brakspear in the week before Christmas, when Brakspear had already left on a family holiday, thereby successfully ruining it. Brakspear was rushed into hiring the only sort of lawyer one is likely to find available at that time of year, with catastrophic consequences for him.
Judge Kgomo’s judgment which Mr Katz found so much to his liking, is undoubtedly the most arrogantly, ludicrously incompetent high court judgment I have read in my long career. On that score, it might have been just sadly unfortunate. However, it also reflects malicious bias, which makes it reprehensible.
Katz and his senior counsel must know that.
I am certain the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (Brakspear has petitioned that court for leave to take Judge Kgomo’s judgment on appeal) need only compare the supposed factual findings with the actual record of the trial and evidence, to come to the same conclusion.
Katz’s summons was a gift. It offers me the opportunity to fully unpack all the damning evidence in an open courtroom, should it not have happened already elsewhere.
I (and Noseweek’s publisher) have entered appearance to defend the case and have filed our defence pleas in which we deny having wrongfully defamed Mr Katz.
No trial date has been set yet. But the trial is likely to be a long one.
Meantime, imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when respected investigative journalist Barry Sergeant produced a fascinating update on the Kebble story for this issue – in which my friend Lennie plays a starring role. See page 13 (subscription only).
Yes, it’s Christmas time, time to remember one’s friends.
Related stories:
Brakspear says he was liquidated over fictitious R7m loan
Brakspear trial showcases a broken judicial system
Last year, two days before Christmas, attorney Leonard Katz kept a promise that he’d made me two months earlier when I received a gift from him, delivered by the Sheriff of the High Court: a summons for wrongful defamation.In it, he demands not an apology – as is customary in such cases – but that I pay him R1 million for allegedly having “wrongfully defamed” him by publishing an image of Katz, captioned “The man who stole justice”, on the cover of the July 2014 Noseweek and in two articles inside: one, headlined “Lennie the Liquidator makes mockery of the law”; the other, “Then there’s Brakspear”.
These articles, particularly the Brakspear one, he claims in his summons, wrongfully portray him as inter alia having devised fraudulent schemes; being dishonest; guilty of unprofessional conduct; having subverted the course of justice; being unfit to practise as an attorney; and being prepared to act unlawfully or unprofessionally on behalf of his clients, for money.
Katz’s earlier letter to me (published in nose 182) was prompted by the just-delivered judgment by Judge NF Kgomo in the Brakspear case – which Katz immediately circulated to his colleagues and clients (and me). He saw it as vindication, and (he would have everyone believe) a complete demolition of my reputation, and a refutation of Noseweek’s reports on the Brakspear matter.
In the letter he says, “You are a vindictive and unpleasant man,” and concludes: “With apologies to Bruce Willis, yippie-kai-yay, Martin Welz!” (Willis’s famous words were, of course, “Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker!”).
By having his summons served at my office on 22 December, he was not, I must assume, wishing to be vindictive or unpleasant. Neither was his special instruction to the sheriff (as the latter politely informed my staff) which was to warn me that I had just 10 days to respond, failing which judgment would be taken against me “without further notice”. (Which, as every lawyer would know, was entirely untrue. It being the Christmas court recess, days would only be counted from 15 January onwards.)
If Katz’s festive season shock was “a vindictive, unpleasant” plan to spoil my Christmas, it failed. I was out of cellphone reach and only heard of the summons after the New Year.
As I recall, years back Katz had an urgent high court application served on the office of Ian Brakspear in the week before Christmas, when Brakspear had already left on a family holiday, thereby successfully ruining it. Brakspear was rushed into hiring the only sort of lawyer one is likely to find available at that time of year, with catastrophic consequences for him.
Judge Kgomo’s judgment which Mr Katz found so much to his liking, is undoubtedly the most arrogantly, ludicrously incompetent high court judgment I have read in my long career. On that score, it might have been just sadly unfortunate. However, it also reflects malicious bias, which makes it reprehensible.
Katz and his senior counsel must know that.
I am certain the judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (Brakspear has petitioned that court for leave to take Judge Kgomo’s judgment on appeal) need only compare the supposed factual findings with the actual record of the trial and evidence, to come to the same conclusion.
Katz’s summons was a gift. It offers me the opportunity to fully unpack all the damning evidence in an open courtroom, should it not have happened already elsewhere.
I (and Noseweek’s publisher) have entered appearance to defend the case and have filed our defence pleas in which we deny having wrongfully defamed Mr Katz.
No trial date has been set yet. But the trial is likely to be a long one.
Meantime, imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when respected investigative journalist Barry Sergeant produced a fascinating update on the Kebble story for this issue – in which my friend Lennie plays a starring role. See page 13 (subscription only).
Yes, it’s Christmas time, time to remember one’s friends.
Related stories:
Brakspear says he was liquidated over fictitious R7m loan
Brakspear trial showcases a broken judicial system