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Johannesburg - Discovery challenged a court order to pay R11.5m to murdered businessman Jeff Wiggill's partner, the Business Times reported on Sunday.
The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered on 19 August that the insurer had to pay Alexander Klencovljevic in a week, but a day before the deadline, the company filed an application for leave to appeal.
Discovery had been embroiled in a legal battle with Klencovljevic based on two life insurance policies of which he was the main beneficiary.
He lodged a claim two weeks after the murder.
Discovery refused to pay, claiming it was awaiting the outcome of several probes.
Wiggill had R18m in the two policies. Of this R11.5 was meant to go to Klencovljevic, the rest to Wiggill's brother and sister.
Bond default
Wiggill, the chair of engineering conglomerate First Tech, was found shot, execution-style, next to his Bentley in Soweto, on 20 June last year.
This was followed by speculation that Wiggill, who had forged numerous documents to dupe the banks, either arranged his own "assisted suicide" or faked his death.
Two days later, his company collapsed under debt of R4bn, taking 7000 jobs with it and triggering the biggest corporate bond default in South Africa until then.
Investec, Nedbank and Standard Bank had R925m of investor cash in the bond.
Klencovljevic argued he had been struggling to maintain his lavish lifestyle he and the couple's five children were used to.
