STANDARD CHARTERED BANK ZIMBABWE LTD v CHINA SHOUGANG INTERNATIONAL 2013 (2) ZLR 385 (S)

2013 (2) ZLR p385

Flynote

Bank – client – bank's obligations to – moneys paid by client into bank – ownership of such moneys – bank's duty to repay money to client on demand – bank surrendering money in client's account to Reserve Bank in obedience to unlawful directive – bank nonetheless obliged to repay money to client on demand

Contract – performance – impossibility – supervening impossibility – where defence applicable – directive by exchange control authority to bank to pay monies held in a customer's bank account to Reserve Bank – directive held to be ultra vires – cannot amount to a supervening impossibility – defence to a claim against bank inapplicable

Exchange control – Reserve Bank – directive to commercial bank to surrender money in client's foreign currency account – lawfulness of such directive – directive ultra vires s 35(c) of Exchange Control Regulations (SI 109 of 1996)