Monrovia – The Supreme Court Full Bench will hold an appeal hearing in the case involving the suspended leadership of the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA) headed by Alice Yeebahn and that of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor.
The high court has scheduled the hearing for 10 a.m., on Wednesday, July 17, with both Vice-President Taylor and Madam Yeebahn and their legal representatives have been asked to be present.
“You are commanded to notify the parties in the above-entitled cause of action or their legal representative(s) that the Honorable Supreme Court of the Republic of Liberia will hear arguments in the said cause on 17th day of July A.D.2019 at the hour of 10:00 a.m. and that they are cited to be present for same,” reads the Court’s citation from the office of the Clerk, Atty. Sam Mamulu.
Suspended LMA President Yeebahn was elected in 2017 at the Association’s convention in Grand Bassa County but was ordered suspended by the Vice President on August 26, 2018, based on a complaint from some aggrieved members.
She was replaced by an interim leadership headed by one Jerry Gedeh.
According to an LMA source, who asked for anonymity, since the suspension, the Vice President has reportedly attempted appointing three interim leaderships for the LMA but every attempt has been prevented by protesting aggrieved marketers, who claimed that the LMA matter is in court and that there was no need for the Vice President to appoint an interim leadership in the absence of a the court ruling.
Following the announcement of Madam Yeebahn’s suspension, she then challenged it before the Civil Law Court ‘A’ at the Temple of Justice to restore her right terming the Vice President’s action as “illegal.”
Judge Yussif Kaba now an Associate Justice, who first heard the case, dismissed Madam Yeebahn’s petition that she did not have the right under the law to sue in the name of the LMA rather she should file the lawsuit as an individual, who was injured.
The suspended lady later withdrew her lawsuit and filed it in her own name at the Civil Law Court “B” presided over by Judge Scheapolor Dunbar, where the matter was heard and the court ruled in her favor.
Vice-President Taylor’s legal counsel headed by Assistant Justice Minister for Litigation, Cllr. Wesseh Alphonso Wesseh, took exception to the ruling and filed an appeal to the high court for judicial review of the lower court’s ruling.
According to some legal practitioners, the Supreme Court Wednesday’s hearing, will likely end the leadership crisis within the LMA. This crisis has paralyzed the marketing association’s activities since the suspension of President Yeebahn on August 26, 2019.