Hay Management Consultants Ltd v P3 Management Consultants (Pty) Ltd

The respondent (plaintiff), an incola of the Witwatersrand Local Division, instituted an action against the appellant (defendant), a company incorporated in England and Wales and a peregrinus of South Africa, claiming repayment of royalties paid under protest. The payment arose from a written licence agreement concluded in London in 1989, under which the appellant licensed the respondent to operate a management consultancy in Southern Africa. The agreement contained a South African choice-of-law clause and a domicilium citandi et executandi in Johannesburg. The appellant raised a special plea to jurisdiction, contending that as a peregrinus it had not had its property attached to found jurisdiction and had not consented to the court’s jurisdiction. The jurisdictional issue was tried separately on the pleadings without evidence.

The appeal was dismissed with costs, including the costs of two counsel; the Witwatersrand Local Division was held to have jurisdiction.

The case authoritatively confirms that, in actions for money brought by an incola against a peregrinus, submission to jurisdiction alone suffices to found jurisdiction without attachment. It reinforces a commercially realistic and internationally aligned approach to jurisdiction based on consent, strengthening South Africa’s role as a forum for international commercial disputes.