Mr. Smith has informed the court that the accused, Mr. Kromah was an employee of Ecobank Liberia at the time he allegedly committed the libelous act of harming his reputation.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, December 18, 2024: The Civil Law Court for Montserrado County has scheduled December 23, 2024, as the opening date for the US$700,000 damages case filed by Mr. Wilmot Smith.
Smith, a dismissed Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) Deputy Director General, filed the suit against Ecobank Liberia Limited.
Smith sought US$500,000 as general damages and US$200,000 in punitive damages.
He alleged that an employee of the bank, Yussif S. Kromah (co-defendant), released an alleged misinformation implicating him (Smith).
According to Smith, he had been linked to the illegal withdrawal of monies from the Population Census fund intended to pay enumerators.
According to the writ of summons, failure on the part of the bank to appear for the hearing, on October 3, a judgment by default would be rendered against it.
Smith’s legal team filed an Action of Damages for Wrong by Attachment.
He argued that the defendants produced the bank statements of LIGIS’s account numbers #6101350441 and 6100064362 to Mr. Alex Williams, an employee of LIGIS, who is one of the panelists on the Spoon Talk Show.
Smith noted that he was accused of withdrawing monies from the accounts, and diverted the same to his benefits.
According to Cllr. Arthur Johnson, Smith’s lawyer, the bank statements were printed while his client was still in the employ of LIGIS as deputy director.
“The said statements were manipulated by the defendants and the management of Spoon TV, and Mr. Stanton Witherspoon, to lie that the said statements were evidence of the wrongful withdrawal,” the suit claims.
The court record said that at the time of the libelous action, co-defendant Kromah was then employed by the co-defendant bank, in the Card Operation Department.
“This act of Kromah was carried out on October 31, 2022, admitted to it in an Affidavit of attestation dated March 30,” the record alleges.
The suit further argues that co-defendant Ecobank, after investigating and being fully aware that their conduct against the plaintiff had harmed his reputation, claimed.
He noted that “the defendants engaged in a cosmetic approach of attempting to deal with the situation, dismissed co-defendant Kromah on January 19, 2023.”
The lawsuit claims that the defendant Ecobank is responsible for the act and conduct of its employee, Kromah because the co-defendant Eco-bank lawfully employed Kromah.”
Under the doctrine of Respondent’s superior, the employer is responsible for the act and conduct of its employee, especially when the wrongful conduct was done during the course of duty of the employee and within the working hourly time of the employee in the bank facility,” the lawsuit said.
The suit also argued that the willful and calculated acts of the defendants to subject the good and untainted regulations of the plaintiff, without any legal jurisdiction, are intended to expose the plaintiff to danger and harm.
“This act of the defendants is wrongful, and the action of damages for Wrong for libel and slander will lie against the defendants.”
“The defendant’s continuous act to defame the reputation of the plaintiff on national radio stations, print media, and other intellectual forums does not only damage and taint the importance of the plaintiff but has clouded and subjected the lives of the plaintiff to unwanted national and international insecurity,” the lawsuit said.
