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Daniel Nemukuyu Harare Bureau
A Harare lawyer has taken the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) to the High Court challenging the authority’s decision to deduct money from a trust account to recover subscriptions owed by a law firm.Maxwell Mavhunga, a principal at Mavhunga and Associates Legal Practitioners, on Wednesday filed an urgent chamber application seeking the immediate reversal of a transaction in which NSSA deducted $1,152.35 from a trust account.

The account belongs to the law firm’s clients.

Law firms are obliged to hold two bank accounts, business and trust accounts.

A trust account is opened for the purpose of holding clients’ funds and no unsanctioned withdrawals are made by the lawyers.

Such funds should be produced at any time on demand and if a lawyer fails to produce the money, disciplinary proceedings will be instituted against him or her by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.

The lawyers also hold business accounts for the day to day running of their firms.

On July 14 this year, NSSA workers visited Mavhunga and Associates at Raymark Court Number 64 George Silundika Avenue.

They discovered that the law firm owed NSSA over $1,000 in social protection contributions.

NSSA then raided the law firm’s FBC trust account on July 22 and deducted what was owed.

In a founding affidavit forming part of the urgent chamber application, Mavhunga said NSSA’s actions were illegal.

“It is common cause that the trust account holds monies that do not belong to me as legal fees but are actually funds which belong to respective clients which must be paid on demand.

“It is therefore illegal for the first and second respondent, in due connivance, to proceed to take clients’ money for a debt which is owed by our firm,” said Mavhunga.

NSSA is the first respondent and FBC the second.

“I have been left exposed to the wrath of clients who may demand their money at any moment and as a result of the first and second respondent’s deliberate ignorance of the law, I will not be able to meet that obligation.

“I aver that the first respondent has no special privilege to deduct trust monies and must follow the appropriate procedures which any creditor would take in the event that there is default by a debtor,” said Mavhunga.

He argued that NSSA and FBC Bank took the law into their own hands to the prejudice of Mavhunga and Associates’ clients and the reputation of the lawyers.

The application is yet to be set down for hearing at the High Court.