Liberia: Judge Orders CDC to Vacate Headquarters
Judge George Smith of the Civil Law Court ‘A’ has ruled in favor of the Bernard family estate, ordering the immediate eviction of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) from the place of its national headquarters located on a 4.23-acre property in Monrovia.
The ruling, delivered on Monday, August 4, upheld the legitimacy of a sale and purchase agreement between the CDC and the administrators of the Bernard estate. However, Judge Smith clarified that the agreement did not establish CDC as the rightful owner of the land, affirming the Bernard family’s claim to legal ownership.
In the lead-up to the decision, CDC’s legal team had filed a motion requesting the court to compel the estate’s administrators to sell the property to the party. That motion was denied, with the court citing a lack of legal basis to enforce such a mandate.
Over the weekend, the Civil Law Court Annex ‘A’ dashed the hopes of members of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), petitioner, when it said it could not compel the intestate estate of the late Martha Stubblefield Bernard (respondent) to sell their property to the party.
In the court’s ruling delivered last week, Judge Smith said that CDC failed to produce documentary evidence, such as a duly executed sale of real property contract or agreement to sell real property, to establish the existence of a sale and purchase agreement between the petitioner and respondent for the purchase of the respondent’s property.
However, CDC had consistently argued that there existed a contract agreement between them (petitioner) and the Intestate Estate of the late Martha Stubblefield Bernard for the purchase of the property.
CDC also asked the court to enforce the existing contact agreement between it and the intestate estate of the late Martha Stubblefield Bernard.
But Judge Smith denied the CDC’s argument of an existing contract or agreement between the petitioner and the respondent, from which the petition for specific performance derived.
Despite the setback, the CDC has taken the matter to the Supreme Court. Party lawyers have submitted an appeal for review to Justice in Chambers, Her Honor Cieana Clinton-Johnson.
Responding to public concerns about the party’s refusal to vacate the property, CDC executive Eugene Lenn Nagbe said the party is pursuing all legal remedies.
“The CDC has not exhausted all the legal remedies available to it. We are legal tenants of the property in question, and we do have rights as tenants who have paid more than a million dollars in lease/rent over the years since 2005,” Nagbe told OKAY FM talk-show host, Julius Jeh, in an interview. “Additionally, we have options open to us in case of any eventuality. So no biggie, we got this.”
The dispute over the property, which has served as the party’s national headquarters for two decades, has stirred public interest, with political and legal observers closely watching how the case will unfold at the Supreme Court
By Liberian Observer.
