Monrovia – The Supreme Court has ordered the Civil Law Court of the Sixth Judicial Court in Montserrado County to enforce its (Civil Law Court) judgment against the Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank in 2019.
In the case “Management of Doramart Trade Limited vs the Management of GT Bank of Liberia, the Civil Law Court, in May 2019 ordered GT Bank to issue Doramart Trade Limited (DTL) a letter of credit.
In other words, the court mandated GT Bank to grant DTL credit facility to import its merchandised products from abroad, but since the ruling of the court, the bank has refused to honor the terms and conditions as contained in the credit facility agreement.
Following GT bank’s continued defiance of the court’s order, DTL went to the Supreme Court of Liberia for intervention but judges in chamber referred DTL back to the Civil Law court and mandated the Civil Law to ensure that the bank adhere to its mandate.
According to the documents in the possession of this paper, the company had met all the legal requirements to obtain letter of credit from the management of GT Bank, but the bank said it has already issued the letter of credit and could not give another letter.
It can be recalled that following the Judge’s ruling of May 15, 2019, GT-Bank filed an action of Debt against DTL in the Commercial Court seeking to recover the value of the Letter of Credit they claimed to have sent on behalf of Doramart Trade.
This twist led the parties to convene a meeting where it was agreed that DTL pay $20, 000USD to GT-Bank and made a new request and submit the name of its new supplier and Bank details for GT-Bank to send the LETTER OF CREDIT (LC) which Doramart did.
However, upon receipt of the request, GT-Bank invited DTL to a conference meeting and following the meeting, the bank informed DTL that it has decline to send the letter of credit, and that the parties should revert to the court for GT bank’s interpretation of the Judge’s ruling.
Because the Judge who gave the ruling was re-assigned, DTL filed a Writ of Mandamus to the Supreme Court before Justice Nagbe who issue the Writ.
Subsequently, Justice Kaba who presided in chambers after the term of Justice Nagbe, entertained arguments and ruled that the Supreme Court could not enforce the lower court’s judgment which was not appealed, except the lower court itself and mandated the lower court to enforce its judgment of May 15, 2019.
Following the reading of the Supreme Court’s mandate, the civil law Court B presided over by Judge Scheaplor R. Dumbah issued a Court Order, mandating GT-Bank to issue comply within 15 days.
It is unclear whether the bank will comply with the court’s mandate this time around.