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The English language can be a fickle language. One that allows users to easily create double entendres, puns (good and bad ones), and, too frequently, ambiguity. A reality all too familiar to the parties in Ethekwini Municipality v Verlum Medicentre (Pty) Ltd [2006].

 

There, a R1,1 million case hinged on the proper placing of the word ‘only’. The court, in deciding whether the municipality was obligated to repay the R1 million sum to Medicentre, relied on a case and passage, which was published imprecisely by the South African Law Reports (SALR). The relevant passage, incorrectly printed in the SALR, stated: ‘[i]t is clear that the in duplum rule can be applied in the real world of commerce and economic activity only where it serves considerations of public policy in the protection of borrowers against manipulation by lenders…’. Implying, then, that the rule is strictly for situations where its use will serve considerations of public policy in the protection of borrowers against exploitation by lenders.

 

However, the same passage and case was also published in the All South Africa Law Reports. In that publication the passage read: ‘[i]t is clear that the in duplum rule can only be applied in the real world of commerce and economic activity where it serves considerations of public policy in the protection of borrowers against exploitation by lenders…’. Here, the passage’s meaning changes drastically.

 

Now, under this phrasing, it is proper to use the rule not only when it serves public policy, but at all times when it is just to do so in the real world of commerce and economic activity, because in formal English the word ‘only’ modifies the word or clause which immediately follows. Consider the following two sentences: 1) He kicked only the red ball, and 2) He kicked the only red ball. The first carries the meaning that the actor kicked just one ball, the red one, while sentence two means that the actor kicked any number of balls but that he also kicked the lone red ball.

 

This case sheds light on the need for precision in the writing, reporting, and interpretation of our case law.

 

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