MONROVIA — A home care company headed by Montserrado County Electoral District #12 Rep. Jerry K. Yorgbor Sr. must pay US$7,077.67 to a worker it hired in the United States and then allegedly paid with checks that bounced, a Monrovia court has ruled, after the company filed no answer to the suit and sent no one to defend it at trial.
The Debt Court for Montserrado County entered final judgment against Comfort Quality Care at Home for All Inc. on Aug. 6, ordering it to pay the amount owed plus 6% legal interest and the full cost of the proceedings. Court-appointed counsel for the absent defendant announced an appeal to the Supreme Court's October Term 2026, and the court granted it, but ruled that the appeal does not operate as a stay. On the wording of that order, the judgment is enforceable while the appeal is pending.
Judge James E. Jones said the court was left with only the plaintiff's evidence because the defendant chose to produce none.
The action was brought by Musa M.B. Kenneh as attorney-in-fact for Lassana Jabateh, who told the court through Kenneh that he was hired in September 2023 to perform services for the company and was paid regularly until Yorgbor returned to Liberia to contest the District #12 legislative election.
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Jabateh presented nine checks drawn on Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and made payable to him, which he said were returned unpaid for insufficient funds, along with emails between himself and Yorgbor about the outstanding debt. The court said the emails contained an admission of the indebtedness. Jabateh said he tried repeatedly to have the checks redeemed, including by trying to reach Yorgbor at his office at the Capitol Building, and that Yorgbor promised to settle when he travelled back to the United States but never did.
The company never filed a formal answer and was ruled to bare denial at the disposition of law issues, which left it unable to introduce evidence of its own. Trial opened April 7 with Jabateh's sole witness on the stand. At a later hearing, defense counsel asked for a postponement, saying he had been unable to notify the defendant's witness, identified in the record as Yorgbor, of the assignment. Jabateh's counsel did not object but asked the court to note the delays caused by the defendant's failure to appear. When the case was called again on June 20 for continuation of trial on regular notice, only counsel for Jabateh appeared.
Jones said there was no sufficient basis to deny the claim and ordered the clerk to prepare and process the bill of costs, with the company to pay.
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The judgment runs against the company, not against Yorgbor personally, and does not establish personal liability. The court record identifies him as its director and recounts his own communications with the plaintiff about the debt.
