Geffen and several others have accused new auction firm, The High St Auction Co, of pilfering the mandates for the multimillion-rand properties. They have gone to court in a bid to stop the company’s inaugural auction, scheduled for early next month.

The battle, to be played out in the High Court in Johannesburg, is scheduled for just two days before High St’s auction.

Among those to be sold off are the luxurious holiday home of murdered Teazers boss Lolly Jackson. Other properties include a five-star Limpopo game lodge with a starting bid of R8million, a four-star coastal hotel, a prestigious Johannesburg building with an opening bid price of R18-million and six condos next to Disney World in Orlando, Florida with opening bids of $60000 per unit.

Geffen, previously the chairman of Savile Row Auctions, was earlier accused of underhandedly trying to sell the company to its main competitor. Some of his former partners in that business have set up High St.

Savile Row shut its doors this month in a voluntary liquidation attributed to the ongoing spat.

Almost immediately High St was launched — to be met with court action from Geffen.

Geffen and several trustees of the DFS Commercial Property Trust, which claims to be a creditor of Savile Row, say the new company is simply a reincarnation of Savile Row.

They say it has the same office, staff, equipment and even telephone number, and that Savile Row’s liquidation was nothing more than an attempt to avoid its creditors.

Geffen, who is a shareholder in Savile Row’s holding company, and the DFS trust, say in papers that they have a lot to lose from what they claim was an unlawful takeover. In particular, they are worried about High St “hijacking” Savile Row’s sought-after mandates to sell properties — which was where the latter company’s wealth lay.

The auction, meanwhile, has a registration fee of R25000 and could generate millions in commission for the auctioneers — if it is not stopped at the eleventh hour when the matter is heard on November 9.

A spokesman for Savile Row, High St, and the other respondents in the case, Tracy Purto, said the matter would “most definitely” be defended.

“The claims are completely baseless,” she said.