Bricklayer sued over unpaid K500 to sub-contractor
Written by Millennium on May 3, 2019
MUTINTA MULAYE writes
THE Boma Local Court has ordered a bricklayer of Chazanga to pay his sub-contractor K500 for the part that he did in a building project.
Donald Banda, 32 of 6 miles who dragged Daniel Mwamba, 49 before Senior Local Court Magistrate Silvia Kabunda said that Mwamba was a bricklayer who engaged him in a project and promised to pay him K1, 500.
“The agreement was that we will build a house in 15 days and he would give me K1, 500. When we started we worked well with no problems. He gave me a K500 at first then I later got a K150 from him so what is left is K850,” Banda said.
He then told the court that the house they were building was almost finished and wanted Mwamba to at least pay him for the work he had done.
In defence, Mwamba told the court that he had worked with Banda on several occasions and when in May 2018 he found a project to work on, he engaged him.
“We agreed that I would pay him K1, 500 and I later gave him a K500. But that house is incomplete. The owner of the house said he doesn’t yet have money to buy the remaining materials. How can I pay him if we haven’t yet finished building the house?” asked Mwamba.
Mwamba told the court that because the job was not yet finished, he was unable to pay Banda.
He said that he would only be able to pay Banda at least K400 for the work done after discussing it first with his boss.
The court found that since Mwamba had engaged Banda himself, he had to pay him for the work done so far instead of waiting for his boss to pay him.
Magistrate Kabunda then ordered Mwamba to pay Banda the K500 in one instalment which was for the work that he did.
