PREMIER TOBACCO AUCTION FLOORS (PVT) LTD v MESOENYAMA & ANOR 2014 (2) ZLR 710 (H)

Flynote

Appeal — trial court's findings — failure by trial court to give reasons — a fatal irregularity — failure to give full reasons — distinction from failure to give no reasons — appeal court's duty to endeavour to make sense of trial court's judgment

Headnote

While a failure to give reasons for judgment is a fatal irregularity which warrants the upholding of an appellant's appeal and the setting aside of the decision of the court a quo, a distinction must be drawn between that situation and the failure of a court a quo to analyse adequately the evidence led in the course of its judgment. A poorly written judgment is a judgment and cannot be equated to a situation where there is no judgment. It is dangerous to equate the situation where a large portion of the trial court's considerations remained stored in the judicial officer's mind instead of being committed to paper to poorly written judgments which, to an appreciable extent, spell out the court's findings but merely omit the details thereof. Judgment writing is a skill which judicial officers acquire and polish as they progress in the profession. In the case of a poorly written judgment, an appellate court should try to make sense out of the reasons of the court a quo for its judgment. It is only when no sense can be made out of it, or no reasons for a particular finding were given, that it can be said the reasons for judgment or a part of the judgment, remained stored in the judicial officer's mind. The distinction must be found in the missing reasons for judgment.