Monrovia – The presiding judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court at the Temple of Justice, Ousman F. Felka, has denied the motion to dismiss a land dispute case involving James Butty, Jo-Anne Manswell (plaintiffs) of the USA versus Roland Peters and Joana Peters (defendants) of Monrovia.
By Victoria G Wesseh, Contributing Writer
The motion to have the case dismissed was filed by lawyers representing the defendants.
The one acre of land in question is situated in Gbengbar Town, Paynesville city, Montserrado County.
In his ruling last Friday, Judge Felka maintained that chapter 11, section 11.2 of the Civil Procedure Law on which the defendants relied on was not sufficient to convince the court to dismiss the case after listening to both parties.
Judge Feika told both parties that there is one Civil Law Court in this jurisdiction with two annexes, “A” and “B” with judges presiding there with concurrent jurisdiction, pointing out that “to infer that the civil law court “B” is subordinate to Civil Law Court”A” is to suggest that Civil Law Court “B” has a lesser authority and a lesser judge and can only act upon the approval of the judge presiding at civil law court “A”.
He noted that the defendants counsel failed to show any legal reliance for which a party is prohibited from filing an action at Civil Law Court “B.”
The circuit court judge ruled that the motion to dismiss is denied and dismissed, ordering an action to eject sustained by the court.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs stated that they are natural born citizens of Liberia residing in the United States of America, and in order to protect their real property interest in Liberia, they authorized, empowered and appointed Mr. Stanford Butty of Monrovia to defend, safeguard and preserve their real properties interest in Liberia.
The plaintiffs furthered that they are bonafide title holders and title owners of (1) acre or four (4) lots of land lying and situated in Gbengbar Town, Paynesville Montserrado County, obtained in 2020 through purchase from Mr. Kaboi K. Nuta and Mrs. Cecelia Nuta in which survey was conducted and titled conveyed and title instrument was duly probated and registered into the record of Montserrado County.
In response to the plaintiffs, defense lawyers prayed the court to deny and dismiss plaintiffs’ complaint based upon what they consider wrongful venue of the case.
The defense lawyers argued that the case should have been venue before his honor J. Kennedy Peabody, who is the Resident Circuit Judge of the Civil Law Court, but plaintiffs elected to venue the case before Civil Law Court “B” which is the annex of ctivil Law Court “A” hence that the court should dismiss the said case for improper venue.
According to them, the defendant has been in possession of said property since 2020, and has been carrying out construction work on the property with no interference from anybody or whatever.