The Commercial Court for Montserrado County has summoned House Speaker Richard Koon (respondent) in connection to the petition for proper accounting filed by his wife, Angeline Mamie Worloh Koon (petitioner). The Speaker has been ordered to appear before the court on April 15.
The court directive to the clerk also read, "you are hereby ordered to issue a citation directed to the Sheriff or his Deputy, commanding him/her to summon the Respondent named herein to appear before Commercial Court of Montserrado County, sitting in its March Term A.D. 2025, to show cause why, if any, the prayer contained in the Petitioner's Petition should not be granted."
However, the directive warned that, if Speaker Koon fails to appear, judgment by default will be rendered against him, meaning that the court will rule in his wife's favour.
The order further directed that, "You are also directed to insert a clause in the said Citation notifying the said Respondent Day of March 31, A.D to file their formal appearance in your office on or before the end of March 2025, and that upon their failure to appear, judgment by default will be rendered against him."
The case is related to Mrs. Koon's contention that her husband, the speaker, has refused to properly account for money he generated from their joint properties that the speaker has managed for the last nineteen (19) years.
She is requesting as a 50% owner to the properties they jointly acquired, in 2005, in which she and her husband developed the land and built five duplexes containing two apartments each making a total of ten apartments.
Angeline is the legal wife of Speaker Koon, and they have been married for 25 years, since 2000, according to the court records.
Angeline also claims that they acquired the joint property in March 2004, located in the Unity Conference Center Community, Hotel Africa Road, Virginia, Montserrado County, Liberia.
The property, the court document alleges, was probated in April 2004, and subsequently registered in Vol 03-04, Pages 270-272 of the Archives, with the deed bearing the names of both Angeline W. Koon and Richard W. Koon.
Initially, Mrs. Koon claims that, in 2007, they mutually agreed to use the properties for rental purposes to generate funds and support their family.
Since then and up to present, she alleges that Speaker Koon has neglected to provide her with any information about income being generated.
"But to date, Speaker Koon, as the one managing the properties, has failed [and] refused to inform his wife about funds from the rentals or leases and how such proceeds are being used and to whose benefit," Angeline alleged.
She said she and her husband, in 2007, estimated income for that year to be calculated at US$5,110.00. She claims that since then, (2007), she has no clue whether the projected income was met, exceeded or what the income for the last nineteen (19) years have been, taking into consideration inflation.
Mrs. Koon's argument is that the purpose of renting the properties have not been met. This is because Speaker Koon has not been accounting to her, prior to them having separate abodes, and he is still not accounting to her even now. According to her, Speaker Koon has been unable to properly maintain and manage the apartments. Although, the properties belong to both of them.
She also accused Speaker Koon of singlehandedly supervising the property, selecting tenants and collecting rents without any reference to her.
Speaker Koon, she claimed, has operated and managed their apartments to her total exclusion. She said she does not have any knowledge of the tenants currently occupying all the apartments because, according to Mrs. Koon, her husband has failed to account or make any form of report to her.
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"He has deprived me of my rights to the income generated and every effort to get information about our joint property and proceeds generated from rentals and or leases, have yielded no results over the years," Mrs. Koon alleged.
She claimed that any attempt to ask her husband for accountability always ends up in confusion. "Some time in 2015, we had a heated argument about his lack of accounting and report on the proceeds from the rent."
Following that argument, Angeline claimed that her husband told her to go to the apartments and ask the tenants for copies of their receipts.
But, before she could reach there, her husband had instructed the tenants not to deal with her, in spite of their joint ownership.
"This is depriving her of her share from the rent," the lawsuit alleges.
