NEWS Sierra Leone Brewery’s Injuction Thrown Out Of Court..Pays Standard Times Le750,000.00 as Legal Cost Posted by Unissa Bangura on Feb 7, 2010, 09:33

When news filtered around the vicinity of the Sierra Leone Law Court building last week that the Sierra Leone Brewery Company is contemplating legal action against the Standard Times Newspaper for performing its legitimate national duty of informing the public about contaminated Beer product and Guinness Stout marketed by the Company to the unsuspecting and gullible public, Lawyer Leon Jenkins Johnston of the Law Firm of Jenkins Johnston and Co, solicitor for the Standard Times Newspaper was heard saying that it would be one of the sweetest legal battles in the history of his practice.

Public expectation was that the comment would have served to caution the brewing company to thread cautiously with its intended legal action, but it did not and went ahead to hire the services of a budding law firm run by Garber and Associates situated along Brook Street in the western part of Freetown to institute an injunction, restraining the paper from writing and publishing news materials that would benefit the public, which border on the products and the Company. On 1^st February, 2010 Lawyer Bangura materialized at the High Court presided by Justice Eku Roberts to advocate on behalf of the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited as to why Standard Times should keep its mouth shut and refrain from sensitizing the public about the products produced by its client.

Being poorly armed with legal materials and basic knowledge about libel laws, Lawyer A.R. Bangura was sandwiched with few legal questions by his colleague Lawyer Leon Jenkins Johnston that left him professionally paralyzed. In addition to his predicament, it was discovered that the legal papers filed in court to accomplish his objectives contained lots of irregularities and done improperly, which he was unable to resolve before making appearance and announcing his representation for the Sierra Lone Brewery in court.

However, Justice Eku Roberts was very magnanimous to him when he adjourned the matter to yesterday; 4^th February 2010, giving him enough time to conduct some legal research and be able to tackle the legal points raised by fire brand small Jenkins, but all proved futile as there was no breathing space for him to prove his mettle as a legal giant in the midst of others.  Justice Eku Roberts seeing the helpless state of Lawyer A.R. Bangura, coupled with his inability to defend what he submitted to the court for consideration and how he has vainly struggled came to his immediate rescue to prevent him from undergoing further legal sufferings.

The Judge was left with no alternative but to protect the Plaintiff’s(Sierra Leone Brewery Company) Solicitor, by throwing the matter out of his court with cost and ordered that the Plaintiff pay  the sum of Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Leones (Le 750,000.000) to the Defendant (Standard Times Newspaper). Responding to the mini court drama and its outcome yesterday, Lawyer Kabbah Koroma who has just issued out a writ of summons against the Sierra Leone Brewery Company on behalf of his client said “This is the beginning of the company’s legal misfortune in a matter with incontestable evidence” and added that he is counting the number of days left after service of the writ.