Old Mutual’s 4-year legal battle against its former CEO finally comes to an end
Finance group Old Mutual says that it can finally put a four-year legal battle against its former chief executive officer, Peter Moyo, to rest.
This follows a decision by the Constitutional Court to dismiss Moyo’s application to appeal against a High Court decision from 2022 which dismissed the former CEO’s claim of R250 million in damages against the company.
The spat between the 174-year-old insurer and Moyo spilled into the open in May 2019 when he was suspended for an alleged conflict of interest.
According to Old Mutual, the situation arose because the former CEO “violated the terms of his employment contract” by allegedly placing his private financial interests ahead of the company.
“In flagrant disregard of the provisions in his employment contract designed to manage conflicts of interest between NMT Capital (a company Moyo co-founded) and Old Mutual, Moyo chaired a meeting of the NMT Capital Board on 4 July 2018, at which it was decided to pay an ordinary dividend of R105 million.
“Moyo and his partners thus shared R84 million, while omitting to pay preference share dividends, valued at R65.4 million at the time, due to Old Mutual,” it said.
The group said that its board engaged Moyo for months about the matter, but it became clear that he and the Board had a difference of opinion about his transgressions and how to resolve them.
The company fired him three weeks later – a decision Moyo successfully challenged in the High Court.
However, the battle didn’t end there. Moyo was subsequently prevented from returning to work and was ultimately fired a second time by the group.
Moyo and Old Mutual then went back-and-forth in court over the dismissal and its legality, with the former CEO ultimately seeking R250 million in damages from the group.
The High Court dismissed the damages claim in May 2022.
Moyo then approached the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in November 2022, where the case was again dismissed. The former CEO’s final stop was the Constitutional Court, which this week hammered the final nail into the case.
“The (Constitutional) Court, in a unanimous decision handed down by nine Justices on Thursday 31 August 2023, rejected Mr Moyo’s application for leave to appeal against a High Court decision last year which had dismissed his R250 million damages claim.
“The Court said that his application ‘does not engage its jurisdiction’ and ‘must be refused’,” Old Mutual said.
The group welcomed the ruling, saying that it has always maintained that it acted within the ambit of the law and in the interests of the company.
“We are extremely pleased it is finally over, and that justice has prevailed,” it said.
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