HANS KLOOSE, Appellant, v. MARY SANDY, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SIXTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, MONTSERRADO COUNTY. Argued April 25, 1966. Decided June 30, 1966. When an appellant who has completed the jurisdictional requisites for an appeal fails to forward the necessary records to the Supreme Court, does not respond to repeated notices of assignment, and appears to have departed from the country in violation of a writ of ne exeat and to have forfeited his appeal bond and his ne exeat bond, the Supreme Court will grant an application for an order to the trial court to resume jurisdiction and enforce the judgment below. On appeal from a judgment of the circuit court in an action for damages, an application to the Supreme Court for an order to the trial court to resume jurisdiction and enforce its judgment was granted. No appearance for appellant. appellee. T. Gyibli Collins. for MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. This matter now before us is unlike a regular or ordinary appeal; instead, it is an application filed by the appellee for this Court to order the trial court to resume jurisdiction and enforce its judgment for reasons set forth as follows in the application of Mary Sandy, the appellee: “1. Because appellant has totally neglected to have the records of the trial court transmitted to this appellate Court during the four terms from March 1964 up to the present sitting of Court; and the said appellant has long since disappeared out of Liberia to foreign parts and has never returned to prosecute his said appeal. 400 LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS 401 “2. And also because, notwithstanding said appellant executed a ne exeat bond to secure his presence for the prosecution of his appeal at the March term 1964, of this Honorable Court, still he left this jurisdiction and thereby occasioned the liability of his sureties both in the appeal bond and the ne exeat bond.” The appellee also made profert a certificate from John B. P. Morris, clerk of the civil law court, certifying that appellant Hans Kloose left the jurisdiction of the court without paying for the preparation and transmission of the appeal record. This certificate, in substance, seems to harmonize with Count 1 of appellee’s application. Except for series of notices of assignments, a letter to the Chief Justice from Counsellor T. Gyibli Collins, counsel for appellee, a proferted copy of bond posted by the appellant in proceedings growing out of a petition for a writ of ne exeat republica, and the application and certificate which we are now passing upon, there really are no records before this court in this matter. Rule 3 of the Revised rules of the Supreme Court provides that “the clerk shall enter upon the docket all cases appealed to, or pending in this court in the order of their filing. No case shall be entered on the docket until all the records and papers connected therewith shall have been sent up and filed in the office of the clerk.” But in this instance, how could there be a docketing when there was no forwarding? The attitude of appellant’s attorney, Counsellor Oliver Bright, savors of an abandonment of his client’s interest. The marshal’s return to the notice of assignment dated March 18 reads thus : “On the 18th day of March, 1966, I served the within notice of assignment upon the within-named appellee’s legal representative. The appellant’s legal representative informed the bailiff that he no longer carries the interest of appellant. I make this as my official return to the Honorable, the Supreme Court of Liberia, sitting in its March term 1966.” 402 LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS Again, the marshal reports thus : “On the 15th day of April, 1966, I served the within notice of assignment upon the within-named appellee. The legal representative of the appellant refused to sign for and receive his copy of said notice stating that he will write me. I make this as my official return to the Honorable, the Supreme Court of Liberia, sitting in its March term 1966.” And so, when this case was called, no one appeared for appellant. We are not in a position to say why appellant neglected the procedural steps relating to completion of appeal notwithstanding having perfected his appeal according to the certificate of the clerk of the civil law court. Neither are we in a position to say with authority that the appellant is without or within the confines of the Republic of Liberia. But suffice it to say that there is no appeal before us and therefore this Court has no alternative but to grant the application of the appellee. The clerk of this Court is hereby ordered to inform the trial court to resume jurisdiction and enforce its judgment. Costs of the appeal are ruled against appellant. Order granted.