Liberia: Judiciary Inquiry Commission Delays Probing Judge Morgan’s Alleged ‘Dubious’ Dealing

Judge Eva Mappy Morgan

 

— Despite Chief Justice Yuoh mandating the commission to do so

A complaint of ethical breach by Judge Eva Mappy Morgan of the Commercial Court is yet to be investigated by the Judiciary Inquiry Committee despite an order from Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh. 

The Chief Justice had written the Commission on April 20, asking that Judge Morgan be investigated for ethical breach. 

Youh’s order came after the attorney-in-fact of two Czech Republic investors, Martin and Pavel Miloschewsky, accused Morgan of alleged "dubious dealing” in a case before her. 

The Miloschewsky brothers’ attorney-in-fact, Hans Armstrong, accused the Commercial Court judge of issuing an “inventory mandate”, for the assets of their company, MHM Eko Liberia, without the knowledge of his client’s legal team. 

The request for inventory, according to Armstrong, came from Nanborlor Singbeh, the Secretary of the Liberian Senate —who the Miloschewsky brothers have sued for allegedly misapplying equipment and monies meant for the operation of MHM Eko.

According to Armstrong, Singbeh, a minority shareholder in the company, conspired verbally with Judge Morgan to have the court take inventory of MHM Eko stocks without a hearing. 

Morgan’s alleged action, according to Armstrong, is a breach of ethics as the request was verbal and not debated in court. 

Accompanying Armstrong’s letter to Chief Justice Yuoh was a copy of a document containing “minutes of a meeting” held in 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic, in which Singbeh  described himself as “having absolute control over the other two branches of the government. the executive and the judiciary.”

“I have been using my contacts with the government not to pay income tax for my local and foreign workers, because every company established and carrying on employment must present a payroll to the ministry along with the payment of income tax collected from its staff or employees,” the document quoted Singbeh as saying.  

According to Armstrong, the judge’s action supported Singbeh's statement to his majority shareholders, for which the judge should be investigated for "unprofessional and ethical breach."

The Miloschewsky brothers’ complaint against Mappy Morgan comes nearly a year after the Supreme Court overturned an investigative report from the Judicial Inquiry Commission in which the judge was found liable for unethical behavior.

The Commission, which has the authority to investigate complaints against judges of courts of record and non-record, had ruled that Mappy Morgan violated some provision of the Judicial Canons while presiding over the Ducor Petroleum case, where US$3.3 million was allegedly withdrawn from an escrow account of the company without the consent of the other party. 

The case was between Liberian businessman Amos Brosius  and a Belgium owned MOTC company.

The Commission had asked the Supreme Court to suspend the Chief Judge of the Commercial Court for a year without pay and benefits for improperly lifting a stay order on the escrow account of Ducor Petroleum, which was then hosted at the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI), without the consent of one of the parties to the case.

But, the Supreme Court, in a majority opinion, ruled that the action of Mappy Morgan  to withdraw 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 finding of the Commission.

“It is the holding of this court that the Chief Judge Eva Mappy Morgan, did not transgress the Judicial Canons, stature, or the Act that created the Commercial Court of Liberia, hence she should not be reprimanded as recommended by the Judiciary Inquiry Commission,” the Court said in the ruling signed by Chief Justice  Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh and Associate Justices Joseph Nagbe, and Jamesetta Howard -Wolokollie.

“The decision to establish an escrow account, which met the approval of the parties, was made through a communication by one of the lawyers of the MOTC, not through a regular judicial process, which may require the exchange of pleadings. Whatever the case, all the communication constitutes the certified records in this case.”

The Court ruling that set Judge Morgan free came as a result of Yuoh, then an Associate Justice, reversing an earlier vote on the matter, which found the judge guilty of the Commission’s finding.

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