Monrovia — An investigation conducted by the Grievance and Ethics Committee of the Judiciary declared Labor Minister Cooper Kruah innocent of allegations of conflict of interest.
By: Victoria G Wesseh
The ethical misconduct accusation against Mr. Kruah was filed by Madam Josephine T. Power, who resides in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
However, the committee, after weeks of investigation, ruled that Madam Power’s complaint does not show any conflict of interest on the part of Mr. Kruah, hence “there is no ethical violation committed by him,” the ethics committee noted.
The committee is an auxiliary group established within the judiciary with the exclusive power and authority to receive and investigate complaints against lawyers for violation of any provision of the judicial canons.
In Madam Power’s complaint, she alleged that in March 2012, she hired Cllr. Kruah to represent her in a case involving one Juliet Rebecca Eze, whom she alleged had gone to Kenema (Sierra Leone) to load rubber belonging to her on a truck that was on its way to Liberia.
According to Madam Power, with the intervention of Cllr. Kruah, the truck was arrested and impounded on the grounds of the Temple of Justice.
She stated that Cllr. Kruah told her that he could no longer represent her because she and Madam Eze “were all his clients”.
She further stated that the matter was pending before the Monrovia City Court, on the complaint of Theft of Property.
Due to that period, Madam Power alleged that Cllr. Kruah was successful in finding a lawyer for the two parties before the Magisterial Court to avoid conflict of interest.
Unfortunately, she said, Cllr. Kruah designated Cllr. Joseph Gibson, another lawyer, to represent her.
She said the rubber was reportedly auctioned and the money was never given to her; instead, it was given to the other party, accusing Cllr. Kruah of conflict of interest, and was holding the lawyer responsible for.
However, the investigation revealed that Madam Power operated the farm four years before the arrest of the rubber involved that was then before the Court.
And it was Rebecca Eze who brought the rubber to Liberia for sale. From all indications, it appeared that the arrest of the truck under the writ of arrest from the Magisterial Court was a case of “mistaken identity”, the ethics committee noted.
“From the facts and records in the Civil Law Court, the Court had commanded that the truck under the authority of the Magisterial Court be seized and attached the said property on it to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Civil Law Court, and place as a subject for the proper accounting that had been filed at least three years before the commencement of the criminal complaint,” the findings said.
It was the Civil law Court that ordered the magistrate to forward the contents of the truck under the jurisdiction of the Civil Law Court.
“It was through that means that the Fruit of the Crime (FOC) in the Criminal Proceedings was transferred from the Magisterial Court to the Civil Law Court.
“There is no evidence that Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah assisted in the Criminal Complaint in the writ for Theft of Property filed in the Magisterial Court.
The investigative findings said, when Cllr. Kruah appeared he denied said allegations against, describing it as “false and misleading and intended to damage his character.”
Cllr. Kruah further said that Madam Power failed to attach any exhibit to show that she hired his legal services and also failed to show any documentation that the rubber mentioned was taken from her farm in Kenema, Sierra Leone by Juliet Rebecca Eze.
Cllr. Kruah further said that to the best of his recollection, Madam Power was a regular visitor at the Henries Law Firm whenever she had problem.
For instance, the Law firm through Cllr. Kruah had assisted Madam Power family to lease a piece of property in King Gray Community to Eagle Electrical Company about three (3) years earlier.
Cllr. Kruah further said that to his recollection, that he was one of three lawyers who represented a party, MARDCO before the Supreme Court of Liberia in another matter and a judgment was obtained in favor of MARDCO against its Italian Partner.
That case in point awarded about Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$ 600,000.00 to MARDCO, which was then represented through a person named Sidney; the Bill of Costs, in the reference case, was served on the Italian partner, who had been sued for proper Accounting.
As a matter of fact, he said, there were three (3) law offices that were representing MARDCO; they were Nash Law offices of Counselor Keneah Lofan, the Tuan Wreh Law Firm of Counselor Nyenati Tuan and the Henries Law Firm.
When the Bill of Cost was served on the Italian, he absconded to Freetown and started using his wife/girlfriend, who from the facts turned out to be Juliet Rebecca Eze, to bring trucks of rubber from the farm that was leased by MARDCO from Sierra Leone to Liberia, to sell, apparently to avoid the satisfaction of the MARDCO judgment.
According to Cllr. Kruah, based upon this information, the rubber that was brought by Rebecca Eze was arrested by the Civil Law Court and auctioned by the sheriff of the said Court with participation of MARDCO’s representative.
