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After more than five weeks, countless hours of testimony and a mountain of documents, jury of the Civil Law Court annex ‘B’ , on Friday, January 31, will make a historic decision: whether Ecobank should be found liable for US$700,000 damages.
The bank was accused of breaching client confidentiality, when one of its employees, Yussif Kromah, the Reconciliation Officer assigned to the Card Operation Department, leaked information of Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo Information Services (LISGIS) account details to Mr. Alex Williams, deputy director for Statistics, at LISGIS, who is not authorized by LISGIS, and a non-signatory to the account.
Williams allegedly shared the account statement with the Spoon TV social media platform, one of the widely listened to talk show programs, outside of the country.
Williams and Spoon TV used this leaked information to incriminate Wilmot Smith, former Deputy Director for information and Coordination at LIGIS, for illegally withdrawing US$1.7 million from LIGIS’s account with the bank.
Smith is seeking US$500,000 in general damages and US$200,000 as punitive damages, on grounds that Kromah’s action was exhibited within the regular course of duty of the co-defendant Ecobank, citing the doctrine of Respondeat Superior.
The account was intended to pay enumerators for the National Housing and Population Census of 2022.
Under the doctrine of Respondent’s superior, an employee is vicariously liable for its employee tortuous acts within the scope of their employment. This principle is well established under the Liberian law.
Allegations about Kromah’s involvement with the sharing of LISGIS’s information with Williams came to light through an internal investigation conducted by the bank, where Kromah admitted to sharing the LISGIS’s account statements with Williams.
However, the bank has centred its case on its investigative findings and subsequent dismissal of Kromah, suggesting that Kromah was no more in its employ, as such they could not be held liable for Kromah’s actions.
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What is expected of today’s hearing, is that Ecobank, co-defendant lawyers and Mr. Wilmot Smith’s lawyers will make their final arguments to the jurors. Then, Judge Scheaplor Dunbar will take about an hour of deliberation instructions, to go over the charge and detailing the elements of the alleged crime.
Most crucially, Dunbar will have to spell out in detail the Supreme Court’s Opinion of the Respondeat Superior.
Thereafter, the jury will immediately go to the room of deliberation and subsequently return with either guilty or not guilty verdict.
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