Supreme Court ends Go Gas Trading owner’s bid to challenge divorce asset split

THE Supreme Court has dismissed a Harare businessman’s latest attempt to appeal a divorce ruling that awarded his ex-wife the couple’s Mount Pleasant home, saying there was no satisfactory explanation for repeated failures to comply with court rules.

In a judgment delivered by Justice of Appeal Nicholas Mathonsi, the court dismissed Michael Dardagan’s application for condonation and an extension of time to appeal against a High Court judgment granted August 1, 2025.

“The indulgence of condonation and extension of time within which to appeal ought to be withheld,” Mathonsi ruled.

The estranged couple married in December 2003 and acquired substantial assets during the marriage, including a Mount Pleasant property held through Go Gas Trading (Pvt) Ltd, another company known as Sluckridge Investments (Pvt) Ltd, and offshore investments.

Following contested divorce proceedings, the High Court granted a decree of divorce and divided the matrimonial estate.

The court awarded Vera Dardagan sole ownership of the Mount Pleasant house, from which she operates a physiotherapy business and resides with the parties’ youngest daughter. Michael Dardagan was awarded the gas business run under Go Gas Trading (Pvt) Ltd.

The High Court also ordered him to pay his former wife’s legal costs on the punitive scale of legal practitioner and client.

Dardagan sought to challenge aspects of the judgment relating to the distribution of matrimonial assets and the costs order.

However, his appeal efforts were repeatedly frustrated by procedural failures.

According to the judgment, an initial appeal filed in August 2025 was deemed abandoned after failure to serve the notice of appeal. Several subsequent applications seeking reinstatement or condonation were struck off the roll because they were defective.

In January 2026, the Supreme Court granted Dardagan permission to appeal out of time and ordered him to file and serve a notice of appeal within five days.

The court found that although the notice was filed, it was never properly served as required by the Rules of Court.

Mathonsi said there was no adequate explanation for the failure.

“There is therefore no explanation at all for failure to comply with the Rules of Court and the court order granting an extension,” he said.

The judge noted that the applicant’s legal practitioners attempted to argue that uploading documents onto the electronic court management system constituted service, an argument the court rejected.

The court also rejected a preliminary objection raised by Vera Dardagan that her former husband was approaching the court with “dirty hands” by allegedly failing to comply with parts of the divorce judgment.

Mathonsi found that the principle did not apply in the circumstances of the case.

Turning to the merits, the court said the repeated procedural breaches outweighed any prospects of success that the appeal might have had.

“The latest breach is so flagrant it overshadows whatever prospects of success the applicant may have on appeal,” the judge said.

The court further emphasised the need for finality in litigation.

“The time has come to stop the applicant in his tracks,” Mathonsi said.

The application was dismissed and Dardagan was ordered to pay the respondent’s legal costs.

Justices Lavender Makoni and George Chiweshe concurred with the decision, bringing to an end Dardagan’s long-running effort to challenge the divorce settlement

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