Court bars police from prosecuting lawyer over 2 cases, sale of beach resort
Justice Teresia Mumbua on Friday ended the couple’s 10-year union after finding the marriage was “broken beyond repair”.
The High Court has temporarily stopped the arrest and prosecution of a lawyer in relation to the sale of a beach resort in Kilifi County and two court cases arising from the transaction.
Court documents show that lawyer Titus Koceyo filed a civil case in Mombasa on behalf of his client, Gention AG, a Swiss-registered company, against Beloilco Holdings Ltd, also Swiss-registered, over a lease agreement related to Black Marlin Resort.
Gention AG leased the property from Beloilco Holdings and was claiming wrongful termination of the lease agreement and consequent general and special damages.
Beloilco Holdings’s lawyers failed to file a defence, leading to a request for a default judgment in favour of Gention AG, which was granted and a decree issued to sell the defendants’ assets to pay the plaintiff.
Mr Koceyo says that as a result, he instructed an auctioneer to execute the decree.
“The execution of court orders through sale of immovable assets is governed by the Auctioneers Act, the petitioner as an advocate has no role to play in the actual sale or transfer except to issue instructions to the Auctioneers firm to carry execution,” Mr Koceyo argues.
Mr Koceyo says the purchaser of the property was arrested and charged in a Mombasa court with conspiracy to defraud Beloilco Holdings.
The case by the Inspector-General of police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director Criminal investigations is that the public auction was not conducted in accordance with the law, he says.
Mr Koceyo also argues that the default judgment and decree were later set aside even, though by that time the property had been transferred to the purchaser.
He also says that Gention AG instructed another law firm to take over the case from him and he has not handled the case file since.
Mr Koceyo says the purchaser later filed a petition in Malindi seeking to retake the property from Beloilco Holdings, who had by then taken possession of it.
The petitioner says that he recused himself from the petition and had no capacity to participate in the proceedings.
Mr Koceyo says the IG, DPP and DCI allege that documents used to file the petition in Malindi were forged and yet the only document he filed was a notice of change of advocates.
The lawyer says that after the purchaser of the property was charged, IG and DCI officers have been calling him to present himself to be charged but he has never been informed of any criminal investigations against him in order to provide his side of the story.
Mr Koceyo says any arraignment on trumped-up charges meant to achieve ulterior motives will irreparably tarnish his reputation and the goodwill he has earned.
Mr Koceyo argues that the respondents’ demands that he be charged for rendering a legal service violates his right to liberty and to economic rights to earn an honest living by practising his trade.
Mr Koceyo wants a permanent injunction issued restraining the respondents from arresting, confining, prosecuting and charging him in relation to the two cases and the sale and transfer of the property.
High Court Judge Eric Ogola stopped the IG, DPP and DCI from arresting Mr Koceyo pending the hearing and determination of his application for conservatory orders.
