Hinrichsen Attorneys

A universal partnership is an express or tacit agreement between two parties, including same-sex couples who choose to live together in a permanent relationship without marrying. They share the same responsibilities and obligations of a married couple, including their present and future assets. In other words, all of their property is owned jointly during the relationship. When looking at the legal consequences, our law does not give automatic rights to partners in a cohabitation relationship. If one of the parties dies without leaving a Will, the domestic partner is not legally entitled to inherit or to claim maintenance from the deceased’s estate. An aggrieved party would have to go to court to show that the parties were partners in a ‘universal partnership’ and that the one party owes something to the other.

With regard to the termination of fixed term employment contracts, one needs to look at the specific circumstances regarding such employment in order to best identify the best course of action when dealing with the termination thereof. Thus, w hen looking at the applicable legislation surrounding fixed term employment contracts (often referred to as 'temporary employment contracts'), the following is noteworthy:

The Immigration Act No. 13 of 2002 governs the process of admission, residence and departure of foreigners into South Africa. furthermore, it also provides for the consequences for illegal entry of foreigners into the country as well as the consequences of employers hiring same.  We have compiled a summary of the consequences which may affect your company directly or indirectly:

As partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree LLB at the University of Pretoria, Alexander Van Der Laan wrote his dissertation on the enforcement of human rights obligations on corporations by analysing the limitations of international law with regard to human rights enforcement against corporations, summarised as follows: F ull Dissertation The Problem The protection of human rights remains one of the principal aims of international law.  Additionally, there exists multiple sources of international law, such as the UN charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifically refer to the protection of such rights. Despite this, there are still entities, such as corporations, which face no liability for human rights abuses.

Thomani and Another v Seboka NO and Others   The Thomani case concerns a company that concluded a loan with a bank, and as security for such a loan, the bank and the applicants entered into a suretyship agreement in 2007 whereby they attached their mortgage bond as surety. In 2008 the company ceased making payments to the bank due to its inability to do so and the company was subsequently deregistered in 2010.  Thereafter, the Bank only issued summons in 2013, however due to the bond forming part of the surety it did not prescribe and default judgment was granted.  The case at hand deals with the rescission of same.