Ponelat v Schrepfer [1] is an important recent case in South African law, with ramifications particularly in the area of universal partnerships, in which the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed an appeal against an order of the Eastern Circuit Local Division High Court.
The court a quo had found a tacit universal partnership to have existed between the appellant, Hans Gunter Ponelat, and the respondent, Erica Schrepfer.
From 1989 to 2005, the appellant and the respondent lived together as man and wife, sharing a joint household, first in Benoni and then in Plettenberg Bay. In the course of their relationship, the respondent contributed all she had to the joint household, financially and physically, together with the proceeds of the sale of her assets, her salary, her time, her energy, her labour, her skills and her expertise. The appellant contributed his electrical business, financed the various properties owned by the parties and provided financial security for them. The respondent also assisted with the administration of the appellant's business, and provided for his needs and comfort. After they moved to Plettenberg Bay, the respondent assisted with administration on the farm and in providing accommodation for tourists.
The relationship between the parties came to an end on April 1, 2005, whereafter the respondent moved into a flat of her own. The question before the court on appeal was whether a tacit universal partnership could be inferred from the proven facts.
The SCA held that the nature of the discussions between the parties prior to their cohabitating, and their intent during their years together, indicated that they had the requisite animus contrahendi to form a universal partnership. The essentials of a contract of universal partnership had been established:
The SCA accordingly concurred with the trial court's decision that a universal partnership had come into being in March 1989 and was terminated on April 1, 2005.
South African family law is concerned with those legal rules in South Africa which pertain to familial relationships. It may be defined as "that subdivision of material private law which researches, describes and regulates the origin, contents and dissolution of all legal relationships between: (i) husband and wife ; (ii) parents, guardians and children; and (iii) relatives related through blood and affinity."
"As far as family law is concerned, we in South Africa have it all. We have every kind of family; extended families, nuclear families, one-parent families, same-sex families, and in relation to each one of these there are controversy, difficulties and cases coming before the courts or due to come before the courts. This is the result of ancient history and recent history [...]. Our families are suffused with history, as family law is suffused with history, culture, belief and personality. For researchers it's a paradise, for judges a purgatory."
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Ponelat v Schrepfer 2012 (1) SA 206 (SCA).