The court case

The next day he was surprised to receive a court summons ordering his presence in court as a defendant in a law suit. He hurried to his lawyer and explained the whole situation. His lawyer said that she couldn’t possibly get a judgement against him on the present grounds, but it would be interesting to see how her case would be presented. After the usual preliminaries the lawyer addressed the court as follows:

"Your Honour, my client, this young lady, is the owner of a piece of property, a garden spot surrounded by a profuse growth of shrubbery, which she agreed to rent for the sum of R100. The defendant took possession of the property, used it extensively for the purpose for which it was rented, but upon evacuation of the property, he paid only R50 of the agreed amount. The rent was not excessive since it was restricted property and we ask judgement be granted against the defendant to ensure payment of the balance.
The defendant’s lawyer was impressed and amused at the way in which his opponent had presented his case. His defense, therefore, was somewhat altered from the way he had originally planned to present it.

"Your Honour", my client agrees that the young lady has a fine piece of property, that he did rent such property, for a time, and a degree of pleasure was derived from the transaction. However, my client found a well on the property, around which he placed his own stones, sunk a shaft and erected a pump. All labour being performed solely by himself. We claim these improvements to the property were sufficient to affect the unpaid amount and the plaintiff was adequately compensated for rental of the said property. We ask therefore, that the case be dismissed.
The young lady’s lawyer responded,"Your Honour my client agrees that the defendant did find a well on her property and that he did make improvements such as my learned friend has described. However, had the decendent not known that the well existed on my client’s property, he would never have considered renting the property. Also upon evacuating the premised, the defendant removed the stones pulled out the shaft and took the pump with him. In doing so, he not only dragged his equipment through the shrubbery, but he left the hole much larger than it was prior to his occupancy, making it more accessible to young children. We therefore ask that judgement be granted".

VERDICT
The young lady was granted her R50.