Lawyers cautioned not to run same cases in parallel

A National Court Judge says two court proceedings of the same case cannot run parallel to each other at the same time as it can cause risk of conflicting decisions.
Waigani National Court Acting Judge Gerhard Victor Linge said this when presiding in a fraud case which a defense lawyer told the court that he had filed a leave application to the Supreme Court while the case was still running in the National Court.
“The leave application can be filed to the Supreme Court after the next returnable date of hearing at this court,” he said.
Acting Judge Linge said the lawyers representing both the plaintiffs and the defendants should consider this seriously.
Lawyer representing the second defendant told the court that he had filed for a Supreme Court leave application on Aug 16.
Lawyer representing the plaintiff Gertrude Kubak told the court that the returnable date should be considered by the registry before the defense filed for a leave application at the Supreme Court.
It was alleged that a portion of land at the Toguba Hill in Port Moresby belonging to the Hudihan Ltd and Godfred Manihoru was sold by a third party who is the son of one of the company’s former directors.
The son had claimed to be the beneficiary and had sold the land to a man from Enga in 2012.
The portion of land sold was a company asset and was worth more than a million kina in value.
It was alleged that the company had been deregistered by the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) after the former directors passed away.
The case had also been a subject of investigation by IPA that needed resolution.
The issue had been brought before the court twice and this was the third court proceeding.