MAMADEE SOKO, Petitioner, v. HON. ALFRED B. MALLOBE, Assigned Circuit Judge, Eighth Judicial Circuit, Nimba County,

Respondent PETITION OF COMPLAINT. Decided September 13, 1971. 1. A court of concurrent jurisdiction is incompetent when it overrules such other courts and its judgments so rendered are consequently void. The petitioner, an Associate Magistrate, complained against the respondent, a circuit court judge, who had, in effect, reversed a debt court judge who had ordered a defendant freed after he had been imprisoned for failure to pay a sum due to a creditor in a justice of the peace court. The Chief Justice in chambers emphatically agreed with the complaints presented, and set aside the rulings of the respondent, including payment of the sum ordered in the justice of the peace court, and restoring the parties in that case to their position after the debt court judge had ruled. Petition granted. J. Dossen Richards for petitioner. Respondent pro se. PIERRE, C. J., presiding in chambers. The petitioner’s counsel, counsellor J. Dossen Richards, has filed a submission against Hon. Alfred Mallobe, accusing him of illegal usurpation of jurisdiction and of unauthorized interference in a habeas corpus matter pending in the debt court in Nimba County. In this matter the judge aforesaid left matters of his court and assumed jurisdiction in the Debt Court, and ordered a petitioner in habeas corpus who had been released on the 669 670 LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS writ granted by the Debt Court judge detained till he could pay a sum of $38.50 alleged to be due to a creditor who had sued before a justice of the peace. Although Judge Mallobe, assigned to preside over the Circuit Court in Nimba County, did not have jurisdiction over matters of debt in that county, and although the judge of the Debt Court was clothed with legal jurisdiction, both over the action of debt out of which habeas corpus had grown, as well as over the habeas corpus itself which had been instituted in his Court, yet Judge Mallobe, without legal authority, or any apparent reason, usurped the authority of the Debt Court judge, countermanded his ruling, and ordered the prisoner whom he had released, detained on an oral allegation claiming an amount in debt due to the plaintiff in the court of the justice of the peace. To say the least, Judge Mallobe’s acts in this matter were not only illegal and wrong, but high-handed and oppressive. In the reply which the respondent judge filed, he has not denied the various allegations made against him, but has contended that submission should not have been filed by the petitioner, because this matter had come up before Acting Chief Justice Lawrence Mitchell, in February of this year. Annexed to his reply is a copy of a letter addressed to Mr. Justice Mitchell, and dated February 25, 1971. Since the judge has relied upon this letter as the basis of his defense in this case, it is set forth. “May It Please Your Honor: “I beg leave of Your Honor to forward complaint of what I consider as a gross advantage taken of me by the Assigned Circuit Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, Nimba County, His Honor Alfred R. Mallobe, now presiding. “About the 4th instant, a boy staying with me was sued before His Honor Justice of the Peace William B. Kei of Nimba County for an alleged debt in the sum of $38.50, which said debt the boy denied LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS 671 owing; and notwithstanding this denial supported by evidence produced at the trial by his witnesses , as alleged, Justice of the Peace William G. Kei ruled against him, from which ruling the boy announced an appeal which was rendered against him by the said Justice of the Peace. The boy was then taken to jail for failure to comply with the judgment. Thereupon a writ of habeas corpus was applied for by the boy’s brother who is presently a student-at-law and presented it to me for approval. Being an Associate Magistrate, and more than this, our court not being a court of record and His Honor Alfred R. Mallobe not at the time present at Nimba County, I accompanied him (the boy’s brother) and led him to the Judge of the Debt Court, His Honor A. Z. Moore, and I read to him page 147, sec. 1654 of the New Civil Procedure law, which section reads as follows : ” ‘Every court of record, except the Supreme Court, shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus in all cases whatever; and every judge of any such court shall have like power.’ “Judge Moore’s court being a court of record, in view of the quoted citation herein, the judge issued the writ prayed for ; a bond having been duly filed and approved by Judge Moore, he ordered the release of the prisoner. Copies of the petition, bond and release are hereto attached for Your Honor’s observation and information. “That on the 24th day of February, 1971, His Honor Alfred R. Mallobe, sent for me and in the courtroom said that Justice of the Peace Williams had complained to him. . . .” “Very respectfully yours, MAMADEE SOKO.” There is no record in the Supreme Court to show whether or not an answer was ever sent to this letter; and there certainly is no record to show any previous pro- 672 LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS ceedings. In any case, a letter reporting to the Chief Justice a gross irregularity of a judge, cannot substitute for regular judicial proceedings in chambers, which have originated by service and return of an alternative writ. In the actions of Judge Mallobe, several gross irregularities were committed : ( r) the circuit court does not have appellate jurisdiction over the debt court because appeals from both courts must be brought before the Supreme Court. (2) By statute the civil action of debt can only be heard and determined by the courts of first instance within a fixed sum, and by the debt courts. (3) In all counties where a debt court has been established, the circuit court does not have jurisdiction over such cases. (4) Habeas corpus can be instituted in any court of record except the Supreme Court; therefore, Judge Mallobe had no authority to interfere with the proceedings before the debt court. This was a flagrant usurpation of authority, a misuse of judicial power, and illegal assumption of a jurisdiction which the law had not conferred upon his court. It is a known principle, and a fundamental part of our practice, that jurisdiction is not conferred upon any court except by law. In South zimerican Cable Co. v. Johnson, II LLR 264 (1952), the Supreme Court held that to render a judgment binding a court must have jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter, and that jurisdiction of the subject matter may be questioned at any time prior to final judgment. At page 269 thereof, the court cited authority. ” ‘A judgment is void if it is not rendered by a court with competency to render it. “‘Comment: ” ‘a. Requirement of competency of the court. Even though the State in which a judgment is rendered has jurisdiction over the defendant, a court of the State has no jurisdiction to render a judgment LIBERIAN LAW REPORTS 673 against him if the State has not given to the court power to entertain the action. Although a State has jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, it may not have given to any particular court or it may not have given to any of its courts power to entertain the action. In such a case the court has no ‘competency’ to render a valid judgment. The court has no power to render a valid judgment, not because the State lacks power but because it has not conferred power upon the court.’ Restatement, Judgments � 7.” The Supreme Court, therefore, reversed the judgment of the circuit court, which had upheld a decision of the Commissioner of Labor, on the ground that the said Commissioner had no jurisdiction over the subject matter. Stare decisis should not have been so flagrantly disregarded by Judge Mallobe. It might be good for the Judiciary that judges who exemplify such traits of oppressiveness, and such disregard for the laws of the Country which should govern their conduct of cases, who display attitudes which are offensive to the proper administration of justice, be retired to save the good name of our courts. In view of the foregoing, the Clerk of this Court is ordered to send a mandate to the judge of the Debt Court in Nimba County, ordering him to resume jurisdiction over the case of debt appealed from the court of the justice of the peace; to hear the appeal and determine according to law. The amounts of $38.50, plus a bill of costs in the sum of $36.00 which Judge Mallobe had arbitrarily compelled the petitioner to pay, should be refunded to him by the party in whose favor the said Judge Mallobe had illegally ruled. The Clerk of this Court will also command the debt court judge to make immediate returns as to the manner of his execution of these orders. Petition granted.