haywardb@avusa.co.za

A MULTI-MILLION rand court battle over one of the most lucrative estate agency franchises along the Sunshine Coast has seen a prominent Eastern Cape family torn over their father’s apparent decision to ditch his son- in-law in favour of a business partner.

According to papers filed in August for the case, which resumes in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday, Port Elizabeth businessman Graham Howell is suing father-in-law Anthony Fuller, co-owner of the Kariega Game Reserve, and Fuller’s business partner Heather Tyson, a Port Alfred estate agent, for more than R3-million.

He claims he lost the sum in profits after Fuller and Tyson forced the closure of a profitable Port Alfred estate agency that was his brainchild, only to start it up without him the next day under a different close corporation (CC). The business name, Sothebys, remained.

According to sources close to the families, daughter Jean – Howell’s wife – is no longer on speaking terms with her father due to the fracas.

Both families have refused to comment.

According to the Close Corporation Act, no members of a CC can conspire to torpedo it – an action seen as neglecting their fiduciary duties.

Howell claims in court papers that after approaching Tyson in 2005 with the idea of setting up a Sothebys agency, Tyson and Fuller committed “commercial arson” by torpedoing the business and reopening without him the next day under a different name.

Tyson and Fuller have counter-claimed, saying Howell owes them R6-million in lost profits and that it was he who caused the franchise to fold.

But Port Alfred sources say it was Howell who “drew the short straw”.

After striking up a deal, the three opened Half Point Properties – a Sothebys franchise – in Port Alfred in 2005, with Howell a 40% stakeholder and Fuller and Tyson combined majority shareholders with 10% and 50%, respectively. Up until then, Tyson had been the region’s leading agent with Pam Golding Properties.

Right from the start, sources claim things went awry, with Tyson recruiting her son, Cyril, a struggling pineapple farmer as office manager – a post Howell had requested.

“Graham and Jean left town for the weekend (in late 2005) and that’s when Heather appointed Cyril as (trainee) office manager,” said the agent.

Exacerbating the office tensions, it is further believed Fuller would always take Tyson’s side. The two are shareholders of a CC which owns a Grahamstown and Port Alfred Sothebys estate agency.

The final nail in the coffin of the beleaguered business was a bid by Tyson in mid-2006 to get a Grahamstown High Court interdict against Howell to prevent him entering their offices, but Judge Jeremy Pickering threw out the case, ruling that “in all circumstances, the application cannot succeed”.

But before Howell’s return to Port Alfred, estate agents say Tyson “forced staff to sign affidavits saying they couldn’t work with (Graham)” and sent them to the Sothebys head office in Johannesburg.

Just over a year after opening, Half Point Properties closed on September 11, 2006 – a direct order from Sothebys chief executive Brent Townes.

Without closing its doors, it “reopened” as Happy Sunshine Homes CC, still under the name of Sothebys and with the same staff, say sources.

Court documents also claim that although on paper the directors of the new business had changed – Cyril and former agent Lindsay Timm were in charge – Fuller and Tyson ran the show. Last April, they officially signed on as major shareholders.

Tyson would not comment on the case, adding: “We hope it will be wrapped up next week. It’s quite pathetic.”