Courtesy of The Independent (April 6, 2001) ------------------------------------------- IN THE ELIE NACHIF – JEGGAN GREY-JOHNSON LEGAL TUSSLE, APPEAL COURT STRIKES OUT MOTION TO WITHDRAW DEPOSIT By Omar Bah The Gambia court of Appeal on Wednesday rejected an application by Jeggan Grey-Johnson to withdraw D50,000 deposited at the High Court, after the Attorney General’s application to withdraw the same amount was also earlier dismissed by the same court. The Attorney General Joseph Joof had earlier filed a motion at the Court of Appeal to withdraw the money, which he claimed to own, from the High Court. The court ruled that Mr. Joof was not a party in the case and therefore had no right to bring forward such an application. After the Court dismissed the application by the Attorney General, Jeggan Grey-Johnson also filed an application stating that he wanted to withdraw the deposit. When the matter came up on Wednesday, Bola Carrol, counsel for Jeggan Grey-Johnson the appellant, moved the motion to withdraw the money. However, one of the panels of judges, Justice A.D. Yahya, asked him whether there is an appeal against the ruling, which ordered Jeggan Grey-Johnson to deposit that money, he answered in the negative. He was then told that the best thing to do was to negotiate with Emmanuel Chime, counsel for Elie Nachif. Mr Carrol then said, “my lord, I take the hint from the court and I am now applying to withdraw my motion.” The President of the Gambia Court of Appeal, Justice Gelega King, then asked Mr. Chime if he had any objections, and he replied that he did not have any and added that he would not even be asking for costs. The application was therefore stroke out. Earlier objections by Mr Chime before the matter was adjourned for some minutes stated that the motion was an abuse of the court process. He added that all those were plans by Grey-Johnson to show himself as someone who does not have money while he has money. Elie Nachif of Yellowgate Studios took Jeggan Grey-Johnson after he allegedly failed to settle an amount agreed over a musical contract signed between the two of them. In June 1999, the High Court presided over by Justice Mam Yassin Sey delivered judgement in favour of Elie Nachif ordering Mr. Grey-Johnson to pay D80,000 plus interests and costs. However, when Mr. Grey Johnson allegedly failed to pay the amount, Elie Nachif filed a debtor’s summons and after the matter was examined by the High Court, Justice Sey again ordered Mr Grey-Johnson to pay D50,000 deposit and the balance to be paid by instalments. When Mr Grey-Johnson appealed against Justice Sey’s judgement, he also filed a motion for a stay of execution. Justice Sey however refused to grant the stay of execution unless Mr. Grey-Johnson deposits the D50,000 in court, which was later complied with, which is the amount that the Attorney General wanted to withdraw from the court as his own money. Justice Gelega-King and Justice A.D. Yahya were sitting with Justice J. Akamba. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------