Monrovia – There are indications that Liberia’s second largest GSM Company, Cellcom, will shortly pay damages in the amount of US$1.8m this week after jurors at the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice found the company liable for said amount in damages last week.
Report by Kennedy L. Yangian – [email protected]
“We the jurors unanimously agreed that having carefully listened to the case and the evidence produced at the trial; do hereby find Celllcom GSM Company liable to pay the amount of US$1.8 in damages “said the panel of jurors.
The decision of the jurors came as the result of a lawsuit filed to the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice by lawyers representing the legal interest of Madam Lucia Lamie of the City of Gbarnga in Bong County, claiming damages after the company’s vehicle hit her in August 2012, resulting to the fracture and damage of her spinal cord.
Madam Lamie’s lawyers had initially requested the amount of US$800,000 at the start of the case but the amount was later increased to US$1.6m after the case was transferred to the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice by the Heritage & Partners Law Firm in Monrovia.
Jurors however decided to increase the amount to US$1.8m dollars while handing down the verdict, based on the gravity of the injury sustained by the victim.
In her complaint, Madam Lamie told the Court she was hit by a white Nissan pick-up bearing a license plate BP #2805, owned by Cellcom on August 18, 2012, while on her way from a local bank in the city of Gbarnga, where she had gone to withdraw some LD$10,000.00.
Madam Lamie claimed the pick-up operated by a man identified as Allie Macavon, negligently drove towards the bike which she was riding and threw it down together with her and the rider, thereby resulting to a serious pelvic fracture and damage to her spinal cord while the rider was seriously lacerated on his head.
The plaintiff continued that after the incident, Police investigation established that the defendant, Allie Macavon was liable for the accident, charging him with traffic violation for reckless driving resulting to injuries and property damage.
According to the plaintiff, she was unable to walk as the result of the accident, thus, she was rushed to the Phebe Hospital where she was examined and found out to have suffered from internal bleeding leaving her to have been transferred to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Monrovia for further treatment.
At the JFK Hospital, the plaintiff indicated that an X-ray was performed and it was discovered that her syphilis pubis was dislocated and her left interior ramus pubis fractured.
The plaintiff’s lawyers told the court that based on medical practitioners’ recommendation the plaintiff was taken out of the country for MRI Cat-Scan, to see a neurosurgeon, she was later flown to Ghana by the defendant, and “That as the result of the accident, the plaintiff suffered unbearable pains, mental anguish, inconveniences, absence from school for two years all due to the negligent conduct of the defendant, which warranted the damages.
According to the lawyer, after the plaintiff was brought back home from Ghana following the medical treatment the defendant, Cellcom prepared an agreement to be signed by the victim so that she can be given USD$4,000.00 as a good will.
Cellcom had argued that the complaint claim of general damages cannot lie under the facts and circumstances that five medical specialists independently concluded that the victim had recovered from the accident.
The Court’s presiding Judge Yussif Kaba is expected to rule in the case at a later date this week although the lawyers representing the defendant, Pierre & Tweh Law Firm has already excepted to the jurors’ liable verdict.