By Grace Q. Bryant
The Judge of the Commercial Court in Monrovia, Eva Mappy Morgan, is expected to face the Judiciary Inquiry Commission (JIC) for the second time in less than a year for allegedly conspiring with defendant Nanborlor Singbeh, the Secretary of the Liberian Senate.
This came after the Chief Justice of Liberia, Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, on Thursday, April 20, forwarded Judge Morgan to the JIC for allegedly conspiring with defendant Singbeh in a commercial dispute that is pending before her at the Commercial Court.
The Commercial dispute was raised when two Czech Republic investors, Martin and Pavel Miloschewsky through their Attorney-In-Fact, Hans Armstrong, filed a lawsuit against their minority shareholder, Singbeh, in an Action ‘Derivative Suit for Audit and Accounting’ and to turn over the affairs of the corporation and corporate assets to the new management of the MHM Eko Liberia.
The Miloschewsky brother’s lawsuit was intended for Singbeh to account for the monies and equipment they had sent to him when Singbeh was then president and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Management of MHM Eko Liberia.
Armstrong’s complaint dated April 18, 2013, accused Judge Morgan, that without the knowledge or approval of him and his lawyers, Judge Morgan ordered her sheriff, Emmanuel Morris and Singbeh to conduct an inventory of the MHM Eko site situated in Weala, Margibi County, the subject of the litigation.
Further to his complaint, Armstrong claimed that Judge Morgan’s action came while the case is still undecided and without notifying him, and without any request from any of the parties; she singlehandedly made her decision which is unethical and needs to be investigated.
Moreover, the Czech investors claimed that Judge Morgan’s action supported Singbeh’s statement he made when he visited them for a meeting in the Czech Republic in 2017, where they quoted Singbeh’s statement in the complaint by saying, “I am using my position in the government to invade regulations promulgated by the government.”
According to the complainant, Singbeh’s statement showed that he is one person who sits in the Legislature and manipulates and control the activities of the Judiciary, especially the Chief Judge Morgan of the Commercial Court.
It is based on the magnitude of the complaint that Chief Justice Yuoh sent the matter to Associate Justice Yussif Kaba, current Chambers Justice of the Supreme Court, to conduct an immediate investigation.
It can be recalled that the JIC, last year ruled asking the Supreme Court to suspend the Chief Judge of the Commercial Court for a year without pay and benefits in the Ducor Petroleum US$3,3million case between Amos Brosius’ land the MOTC management, where Brosius accused Morgan of lifting a stay order in a commercial dispute case that was pending and that led to the depletion of the company escrow account, at the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment.
However, the Court on September 26, 2023, overturned the Commission ruling, saying Mappy Morgan’s decision to lift the stay order on the US$3.3 million escrow while the case was being litigated was not in violation of the Judicial Canons, status, or the Act that established the Commercial Court of Liberia – absolving the judge of the Commission finding.
Judge Mappy’s claim was then backed by the majority of justices of the Supreme Court, who ruled that all the communications constituted the records of the case.
“It is the holding of this court that the Chief Judge, Eva Mappy Morgan, did not transgress the Judicial Canons, statute or the Act that created the Commercial Court of Liberia, hence should not be reprimanded as recommended by the Judiciary Inquiry Commission,” the Court said in the ruling signed by Chief Justice Yuoh and Associate Justices Joseph Nagbe and Jamesetta Howard -Wolokollie, the ruling quoted.
It further stated that, “The decision to establish an escrow account, which met the approval of the parties, was done through communication by one of the lawyers of the MOTC, not through a regular judicial process, which may require the exchanges of pleadings. Whatever the case, all the communication constitutes the certified records in this case.”
The Justices noted that they could not support the Commission’s categorization of Warner’s communication to the judge as private communication.
