A bitter 15-year battle over a prime Mutare service station has ended in dramatic fashion, with the High Court ordering Nashcrystal Motors to pack up and leave -- and get its US$80,000 refund.

Justice Muzenda tore into Nashcrystal's claims against Total Zimbabwe and Drawcard Enterprises, ruling that the company had no one to blame but itself for bungling the 2009 property deal.

"First defendant must refund to the plaintiff the US$80,000 paid to it and held by its lawyers," the judge declared. But he flatly denied interest, saying Nashcrystal forfeited that right by stubbornly rejecting the refund.

The judge ridiculed the company's demand for US$100,000 in damages as fantasy.

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"Plaintiff authored the breach and it cannot seek to benefit from its own breach. Plaintiff simply plucked a figure from nowhere... it is a call from a top of a mountain claiming for relief without a valid basis and root."

Nashcrystal also lost its claim for US$43,667 in alleged improvements, with Justice Muzenda accusing the company of freeloading on the property since 2009.

"For more than 15 years plaintiff is the one who should be sued for unjustified enrichment.

"Besides the failure by the plaintiff to prove the amount of US$43,667, it has no moral basis to claim this amount."

In siding with Drawcard Enterprises, the rightful owner since 2009, the judge said the company had suffered enough.

"Third defendant invested its capital to make profit and not to literally camp at the courts for 15 years fighting for ownership," he said.

Nashcrystal and all those under it must now vacate No. 17 Aerodrome Road, Mutare, and pay costs.

Closing his ruling, Justice Muzenda warned about the damage of endless legal battles.

He said the impacts of prolonged civil suits on the economy are but disastrous and huge and a country cannot develop.