Judge Golda Bonah Elliott of the Civil Law Court at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia has issued a writ of possession on the former ruling Congress for Democracy Change (CDC) following an action of ejectment.
The CDC for a decade has been occupying the properties of the Barnard family in Congo Town as its headquarters through a lease agreement, a decision that was later resisted by the opposite party of the family.
Early March of this year, Judge Elliott ordered the sheriff of the court to evict and eject CDC from the property and give entitlement to Martha Stubblefield Barnard as its new administrator. In 2015, the CDC was dragged before the Supreme Court of Liberia at which time the court ordered them to pay the sum of US$50, 0000 for unpaid rent owed to its landlord.
But the matter was later settled when two separate families of the property began a legal battle on the ownership of the property in question. According to our judicial correspondent, there have been claims and counter-claims surrounding the land ownership which began from the levels of the Civil and Probate Courts.
But speaking Thursday, September 12, 2024 to a team of journalists at the Temple of Justice, CDC Chairman Jangar Kowo said the party as a law abiding institution wants redress on their Bill of Information filed to the court.
Kowo said the CDC believes that the case is being politically motivated; as such, they are not surprised, but intend to seek redress from the court. Chairman Kowo said his party is not claiming ownership of the properties, but wonders while CDC’s name be placed on the writ for possession.
He argued that the CDC had been paying its rent to the Bernard family’s legitimate administrators of the property of the late Martha Stubblefield Bernard.
This eviction action grew from the Intestate Estate of Martha Stubblefield Bernard, by and thru its administrator Ebrima Varney Dempster of the City of Monrovia versus the Intestate Estate of William Thomas Bernard Sr, represented by its executors Archibald Bernard, William Bernard, Nancy Freddy Bernard Freeman, Murray Bernard, Leona Bernard, and the Congress for Democratic Change represented by its Acting Chairman Nathaniel McGill of Monrovia.
