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Van Heerden AJ

sole heir of the deceased estate and will inherit whatever remains of the estate after the debts have been paid. In my view, paragraph 6 of the High Court order is in all the circumstances just and equitable and should be confirmed by this Court.

[53] However, once the setting aside of the agreement is confirmed, paragraph 7 of the High Court order becomes unnecessary: it is up to the executor of the deceased estate, whoever he or she may be, to decide how the property is to be dealt with in the execution of his or her duty properly to administer the estate. I do not think it desirable that the executor be fettered in the fulfilment of this duty by a court order dealing with conditional entitlement to occupation of the property. Paragraph 7 of the High Court order should thus be set aside.

[54] Paragraph 8 of the High Court order should, in my view, be confirmed by this Court. The circumstances in which the movable assets belonging to Mr Gory and/or the deceased referred to in paragraph 8 of the High Court order were removed from the former’s possession after the deceased’s death by the first, second and third respondents and members of the deceased’s family are sketched in the reported High Court judgment.[1] Understandably, the emotions of the deceased’s parents and other members of his family seem to have been running high during this period and the manner in which many of these assets were removed from Mr Gory’s possession was regrettably somewhat high-handed and insensitive to the grief and confusion which he was also suffering. Most, if not all, of these assets are apparently still in the


  1. Above n 1 at paras 9–13 and 25.

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