A man who was a claimant in a civil suit has complained that recently he was served with a summons to pay $15,000 to the defendant or face imprison-ment.

He says he does not know how the debt arose because he was the person who had first brought the matter before the court.

"The dispute between the defendant and myself arose when he gave me a machine to fix.," he disclosed.

"I fixed the machine but the defendant would not pay me for it so I refused to hand it over until I got my money. He came to my home and assaulted me and I reported the matter to the police and I brought a suit against him to recover damages for the injuries I sustained .

"I engaged the services of a lawyer who charged me $15,000 to represent me in the civil suit in the Resident Magistrate's Court but the lawyer dropped the case and has not refunded my money. I went to the courts office and asked a clerk for the date when my case would be heard. The clerk gave me a date but it turned out to be the wrong date and when I turned up on that date I was told that the case was over.

"It was really surprising to me when a bailiff came to my house with a summons to collect $15,000 for judgment debt. I don't know the circumstances under which that debt arose. I went to the court's office but I got no sensible explanation. I am now told that if I do not pay the $15,000 I can be sent to prison and it is also endorsed on the summons that if I don't pay the money I can be jailed."

Judgement in your absence

The judge has made an order for you to pay the defendant $15, 000 and if you fail to obey the order, then you can be found to be in contempt of the court order and can in fact be jailed. However, since you said that you were not aware until recently that the order was made against you, you can go the the court's office and ask for assistance to file an application to have the judgment set aside.

It would appear that the defendant had filed a counter-claim against you for $15, 000 and judgment was entered against you in your absence. If you are not successful in having the judgment set aside, then you could file an appeal in the Court of Appeal.