The Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Yussif Kaba is recommending that to ensure that before any instrument affecting or relating to lands are offered for probate, it must first obtain clearance from the LRA.
Justice Kaba said the Probate Courts should also close all estates that have lived for more than two years and subject all real property of such estate not in adjudicated areas to adjudication under Chapter 8 of the Property Law Revised Code.
The former president of the Trial Judges Association maintained that in order to cut down on the dockets of the circuit courts and to exploit the expertise of the technical capacity of the Liberia Land Authority, administrative investigative authority should be conferred on the Authority to hear and determine land disputes not involving fraud or related issues which are subject however to judicial review by the courts.
The former circuit court judge suggestion comes as a caution to Probate Courts across the country, thereby urging them to partner with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) in order to reduce cases resulting to land conflicts.
In his presentation under the theme; ‘Ensuring the effective involvement of the Probate Court in Land Registration, Recording and Tracking Chain of Title,’ Justice Kaba reminded that the LLA came into existence to fill the gap using the existing registration laws.
He stressed that land is the most important economic resources in any nation and as such, the issue of resolving land conflict will help the developmental agenda in the country
According to Justice Kaba, Probate Courts are not technically equipped with trained manpower to deal with the challenges of fraud associated with criminal conveyance of title deed therefore, the court should always work with the land authorities to reduce conflict.
Justice Kaba further explained that the records under the long-standing deed registration system have been scattered, damaged and in many cases destroyed therefore that has encouraged widespread fraud and malpractice in land transactions.
“Judges, lawyers and court’s staff who handle the probate, recording registration of deeds and other instruments relative to lands do not have the requisite knowledge or technique to detect whether the seller, lessor or mortgagee of an instrument has the quantity of land or is the legal holder of the instrument proffer for Probate before a judge,” he noted.
Justice Kaba revealed that the Probate Courts also continue to order decree of sales to young generations of administrators in the absence of authentic inventory as required by law which therefore do not have accessible data base to ascertain and authenticate the several claims by the estates.