Pretoria - A leading Centurion law firm and its director obtained an interdict against a disgruntled client who had been badmouthing the company and the lawyer in a series of emails to various entities.
She referred to the lawyer as being a “fraudster”.
Lawyer Johan van Greunen turned to the high court sitting in Bloemfontein, as he said he could not simply sit back and allow Hilda McGovern to continue defaming him and his firm, Van Greunen & Associates.
The lawyer, who has also served as an acting judge in the past and who has an unblemished reputation, told the court that McGovern, a businesswoman, simply would not stop her badmouthing campaign.
She wrote several emails and letters in which Van Greunen and others are referred to as fraudsters. The recipients included officials at the Land Bank, various courts, the police and creditors of a company. She even laid charges against Van Greunen with the Commercial Crimes Unit, the Legal Practice Council, and the Restructuring and Insolvency Practitioners’ Association, repeating the defamatory remarks.
The trouble started in 2021.
In the opening to his judgment on the matter, Judge JP Daffue said Van Greunen is an experienced legal practitioner with an impressive CV and is involved in a fierce battle with a disgruntled person.
“The one may be considered a warrior trying to play according to the rules of the game and the other a real street fighter who does not subvert herself to any rules,” the judge remarked.
McGovern, who lives in Deneysville in the Free State, did not deny that she had referred to the lawyer and his firm as fraudsters, but she claimed that her remarks were the truth and in the public interest. She argued that it was her constitutional right to voice her unhappiness.
Apart from wanting to gag her from badmouthing him and his firm, Van Greunen also wanted the court to order her to apologise to him publicly in three newspapers. He said she had defamed him on several occasions.
Her latest attack, shortly before he turned to court to interdict her, was the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Van Greunen said he cannot simply sit back idly and allow her to indefinitely continue with her personal, unwarranted and unfounded attacks, with possible far-reaching detrimental consequences to himself and his professional career.
Judge Daffue said in the event of conflict between two competing constitutional rights, a balancing act is to be exercised.
“No right is absolute, and although the right to human dignity is seen as a central value and even a pre-eminent value, the facts and circumstances in each case need to be considered to established whether the right to dignity should not be limited.
“I accept that people serving the public, such as lawyers and insolvency practitioners, must accept that they may be fiercely criticised from time to time by others such as creditors, disgruntled debtors and even the courts. They are not immune to criticism,” the judge said.
He commented that a disgruntled client or any other person who has evidence that a legal practitioner has acted unprofessionally, fraudulently or unethically will always be entitled to lay complaints with the professional body or bodies of which such a legal practitioner is a member, and with the police in the event of criminal offences.
“Such a right is in the public interest, but there is an obvious limit. Nobody shall be allowed to make unfounded accusations against such a legal practitioner,” the judge said.
He said that while McGovern claimed her statements to be true, she provided no evidence to prove it.
The judge said she has communicated her dissatisfaction to all and sundry, and continued to do so.
“This has to stop,” the judge said in interdicting her from continuing with her campaign. However, he said he could not order her to apologise, as case law did not permit this.
Pretoria News