Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) announced on Wednesday that Computershare South Africa and CST Outsourcing (CST) have filed a claim for R7.45-million against Finsettle Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BJM, and two of its employees.

BJM noted that the claim was for damages resulting from alleged unlawful and uncompetitive business practices.

An Anton Piller Order (APO) was granted to CST and served upon Finsettle on October 4, 2005. An APO is a search and seizure order that allows for the preservation of discovered evidence which may otherwise have been destroyed and is granted without notice to the party against whom it is sought.

BJM said Finsettle gave its full co-operation after which it was discovered that a former employee of CST had some information in her possession and on Finsettle property that was proprietary to CST.

The group said the information in question mostly dates back to 2003 or earlier and is of no commercial value and that such information has not been utilised by Finsettle in any way.

BJM said they believe the claim to be false.

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