-Commercial court Judge threatens default judgement after 11 years delay
A landmark case involving leading vehicle company, Prestige Motors Corporation and the Liberian government has been reassigned to December 1, 2017 by the Judge of the Commercial Court Eva Mappy, who has warned that the court will not hesitate to render default judgement, after some eleven years of delay.
Judge Mappy sounded the warning last Tuesday at a hearing at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia, when the government legal team appeared before the commercial court led by Cllr. Augustine Fayiah, who prayed the court to suspend the hearing citing various reasons.
Prestige Motor Corporation headed by prominent businessman George Haddad filed a lawsuit against the government of Liberia for an initial amount of 10.7 million United States dollars owed the company.
The amount represents several luxurious vehicles and spares parts government loaned from the company in 2006 for its operation.
But Commercial Court Judge Mappy over- rule the request of the defense Lawyer, warning that the court will not hesitate to render judgment by default if any of the party litigants failed to show up in court.
After eleven years of delay, lawyers representing Prestige Motors Corporation want the court to ensure that the government settles the debt, as an interest of US $20 was accrued, making a total of about US$30. 7 million.
In a bid to amicably resolve the matter, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) early this year decided to mediate, by prevailing on the creditor to wave a total of 1 million US dollars from the interest accrued over the years.
An agreement was reached making the Liberian government liable to pay its creditor a total of US$20.7 million, but despite promise to proceed with the payment as of August this year nothing was done about the matter.
The refusal to honor the debt per the agreement forced the management of prestige motor to return to the court for redress. Report by Bockarie Musa