Mushipe drags UPND MP to court

Tue, 30 May 2017 11:13:10 +0000

By Chikumbi Katebe

UPND Nalikwanda Member of Parliament Geoffrey Lungwangwa is in court for failing to settle K44,000 debt in legal fees owed to his lawyer, Martha Mushipe.

This involved the case in which Ms Mushipe was legal counsel for the parliamentarian in an election petition filed against Professor Lungwangwa by Samuel Mukumbuta Nayun-da after the August 2016 general election.

According to the statement of claim filed by the lawyer, Prof Lungwangwa approached her law firm to defend him in the legal suit commenced in September 2016.

“As a result of the aforementioned, Ms Mushipe and Prof Lungwangwa entered into an agreement which stipulated that the plaintiff would provide professional legal services to the defendant herein and an initial deposit fee of K50,000 was agreed upon to be paid in reasonable instalments and an engagement letter accepting the condition thereof was signed by both parties,” she said.

Ms Mushipe submitted that Prof Lungwangwa only paid K6,000 towards the K50,000 agreed  charge until the defendant terminated the contract before the conclusion of trial before court.

She said at the time of termination of contract, Prof Lungwangwa still owed her the bal-ance of K44,000 in unpaid legal fees, which have remained outstanding till now.

She complained that despite repeated reminders, the MP has refused, neglected and ig-nored to pay the debt, and that he has “remained adamant to settling the outstanding legal fees which are rightfully due to the plaintiff for legal and professional services ren-dered to him”.

Ms Mushipe has since requested the High Court for immediate payment of fees out-standing as well as interest at commercial bank rate and any other reliefs deemed fit by the court.