09-December-2024

Lease Contract Carries Surprise For Court Foes

Lease Contract Carries Surprise For Court Foes

 

KHARTOUM (Sudanow) - When he leased one of his houses in Khartoum North to a company engineer coming from Elobied City in Central- Western Sudan, it never came to his mind that this lease contract would one day carry a surprise for him.

It so happened that in 1954 a man in Khartoum North one day asked his two sons (11-13 years old) each to do a certain house duty, promising a good financial prize of one ta’areefa for the one of them who does the job as required. By the standards of those times the ta’areefa (penny) was a good sum to be put in the hand of a child.

Back from work the man found that his younger son had done as ordered, while the older son did not care.

As related to Sudanow Magazine by Attorney Fawzi Bashir Musa, the story goes on to say that upset by being deprived from the money, the older son slipped secretly out of the house and roamed the City’s streets and never came back home. His family left no stone unturned but never found a trace of him.

Years passed and the younger son’s father and mother died leaving behind a vast property of real estate for him. He used to lease that real estate to make a living.

One day a family came from Elobied and rented one of his houses for a contracted sum of money. According to the lease contract, the second party (the engineer) was obliged to raise the rent on annual basis; at a sum agreed upon by both parties. Three years after (in 2010),  the landlord asked the client to pay the rent increase for the new year or quit his house, a demand the client refused to obey. The landlord filed a case in court. Hearing after hearing continued and the judge had to issue a ruling. Reading the papers in front of him, the judge noticed some similarity in the names of both plaintiff and accused. The judge decided to use his jurisdiction to advise a reconciliation arguing to both sides that “you are fellow human beings and even your names are very nearly similar. So why don’t you settle this dispute in a friendly manner?”

Hearing the remark of the judge and re-reading the full name of the accused (first, second, third and fourth name), the plaintiff noticed that something was up. He rushed towards the accused and asked: Who are you and who is your father and who are your kin?

“My mother is from Elobied and I do not know the family of my father. They tell me he came from Khartoum to our area as a young boy and lived at the City of Elobied and married my mother. He now lives with me in your house. I have brothers and sisters. We came to Khartoum to study and work” he replied.

“Would you please describe your father to me.

Is there any sign on his body?” asked the plaintiff.

“Yes, he has a big sign on his face, an old scar which is very clear on his eyebrow,” replied the accused.

Here the plaintiff fell unconscious to the ground out of surprise. The man he was suing in court was his nephew, son of his brother who ran away from home sixty years ago.

The judge adjourned the session until when the plaintiff regained his consciousness. The man immediately took his nephew in his arms and hugged him .Everybody in court was appalled by what they saw and heard. Tears of joy poured down at the happy surprise.

After everybody calmed down, the engineer took his uncle to his home to see his brother whom he lost sixty years back. All the other family members were called for a re-union, which was incidentally prompted by a case in a court of law.

 

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