Prescription period waived in negligence case

Judge Tshiqi in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Macleod v Kweyiya, recently decided that the claimant was entitled to sue her attorney 25 years after her case against the Road Accident Fund was settled negligently. The claimant was rendered a paraplegic after a motor vehicle accident and the attorney was appointed by her mother to claim damages. Irrespective of the three year prescription period in terms of the Prescription Act the court decided that she could sue her former attorney for damages, as she was entitled to rely on her mother and her attorney to act in her best interests in settling the matter. She claimed she was due R2.1m at the time of the settlement and quantified the monetary value of this amount at the time she sued her former attorney to be R4.8m. They settled at a mere R99500. The court decided that prescription would only start to run from the date that she became aware of the terms of the settlement agreement. http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2013/28.html