A Lusaka High Court has dismissed claims for parties in a case involving a diamond transaction because the whole deal was illegal and unenforceable in law.

This is in a case in which a Lusaka businessman and miner, Paul Kazenene of 14/03 Kabanana Site and Service, had sued Fines Himweene of Chelstone as a defendant for collecting his diamonds for sale and a further K300,000 from his wife when he was arrested.

Kazenene was claiming K75 million, which was the value of the diamonds, and the K300,000 that he claimed Himweene had failed to either account for or give any other consideration or replacement.

He claimed that Himweene had professed to him as a man with a ready market for the diamonds.

Kazenene, through his lawyers Silweya and Company, explained that he was semi-literate, and that on July 2, 2003, he was at Katondo Street when Himweene and his friend who asked him what kind of business he was doing approached him.

He informed them that he was dealing in diamonds and showed them a sample.

They later drove to Chelstone where they finalised the sale of diamonds and signed some document. Himweene promised that he would pay K75 million later.

Himweene, through his lawyer Nicholas Chanda, however, denied ever dealing in diamonds as alleged by Kazenene and denied being a businessman.

He said he was an accountant in the civil service and admitted that he had agreed to finance a deal to 'make money through blasting old gold pound'.

Himweene made a counter claim of K30 million advanced to Kazenene.

Passing judgment in chambers yesterday, High Court Judge, Martin Imasiku, noted that Himweene had agreed to be Kazenene's agent and that he could, therefore, not be bound as a buyer but as an agent.

Mr Justice Imasiku said there was no evidence that he had sold the diamonds and that neither Kazenene nor Himweene admitted authoring the document.

He said his findings were that Himweene did not owe Kazenene K75 million and was, therefore, dismissing the claim and that the claim for K300,000 failed for lack of evidence.

The Judge further dismissed Himweene's counter claim and stated that it was the same as that of Kazenene, which was illegal and unenforceable in law.

He said Himweene had agreed to finance the counterfeiting of money which was illegal or against public policy.

Meanwhile, a Chipata firm has sued a subordinate court for referring a matter to the High Court because it has no jurisdiction and is seeking a declaration that the decision be declared null and void.

This is in a case in which Stancom Tobacco Services Limited (STSL) of Umodzi Highway in Chipata sued Ford Tembo for failure to honour an agreement in which STSL loaned Tembo K240 million by way of cash and cheque advances for the purchase of tobacco.

In an affidavit filed in the Lusaka High Court, STLS was seeking judicial review that the decision of a senior resident magistrate of Chipata Subordinate Court to refer the case to the High Court was substantially and procedurally wrong and that it was conducted in a manner that defeated justice.

STLS submitted that the senior magistrate had no power to transfer a case before it to the High Court and that the court should have dismissed such a case where it had no jurisdiction to allow the parties to commerce such matters before an appropriate court.

The firm was also seeking judicial review that the decision of the senior resident magistrate be moved into the High Court for the purposes of determination and quashing.