Sierra Leone risks legal default on incomplete renovation of diplomatic mission
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman
Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has not responded to a lawsuit brought against the country’s diplomatic mission in New York. The United States District Court in New York dispatched four summons between 19 May 2021 and 17 June 2021 to the Ministry.
The lawsuit was filed by New York City residents Janet and Joseph Harvey at the US Southern District Court of New York, alleging several violations caused by incomplete renovation work at the Sierra Leone Mission headquarters in Manhattan.
On 14 May 2021, Janet and Joseph Harvey, the immediate neighbors of the Sierra Leone Mission in New York City, sued both the Sierra Leone Mission and a construction company hired by the Mission, the Empire Group LLC, on allegations of unlawful and incompetent efforts to renovate and expand the Mission’s headquarters in Manhattan. They allege that construction work at the Mission’s headquarters poses a clear and present danger to their health and to the health of the public and has significantly harmed their house, which is valued at over US$5 million. The Harveys also accused the Mission and Empire Group of violating numerous provisions of the New York City Construction Code.
“The unlawful construction efforts at the Sierra Leone Mission headquarters, which is located next to the Harvey’s home pose an immediate danger to the life and safety of the Harveys and other members of the public through, among other things, fire, flying debris, carbon monoxide poisoning, mold, and vermin infestation,” lawyers representing the Harveys stated in official court papers filed on 14 May 2021.
The Harveys are requesting compensation from the Sierra Leone Mission in New York in the amount of at least US$155,020, together with pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, including the costs of their lawsuit and such other relief as the Court may order. They also demand “punitive damages against Empire Group for their egregious disregard of the Harvey’s safety, wellbeing, and ability to live in their own home and for injunctive relief against all Defendants.”
The Harveys state that despite multiple requests, no schedule for completion of the renovations was provided by the Sierra Leone Mission and its contractor, Empire Group LLC. Engineering inspections of the Mission’s headquarters conducted on 18 March 2021, and 8 April 2021, state that the renovations performed to date are neither viable nor safe.
Sierra Leone contracted Empire Group LLC in June 2019 to renovate the Sierra Leone Mission headquarters in New York, including the construction of two additional floors. The company obtained construction permits from the New York Department of Buildings (NYDOB) to conduct the renovations, but two years on, no real progress has been made. Investigation on the construction site in New York shows that the renovations remain incomplete despite the transfer of more than US$3.6 million from Sierra Leone for the project. Specifically, the proposed top two floors have not been built, leaving Sierra Leonean diplomats to squat at the headquarters of the Ugandan diplomatic mission in New York. The state of the abandoned building has now prompted 21 neighbors to file complaints against the Mission and the construction company. The first lawsuit filed by the Harveys is currently being heard at the Southern District Court of New York before the Honorable Edgardo Ramos.
Court documents reviewed by the Africanist Press show that despite having received four summons giving notice of the lawsuit, Sierra Leone’s Foreign Affairs Minister David Francis has not entered a legal representation in response to the court matter. The court gave the Sierra Leone government 60 days to respond to the summons failing which a default judgment will be reached against the Mission in New York.
An affidavit sworn by Amanda DuBose Smith of Lowenstein Sandler LLP, the law firm representing the Harveys, attests that a DHL customer service agent in Freetown confirmed delivery of the court summons at the Freetown office of Sierra Leone’s foreign affairs ministry on 16 June 2021.
“I spoke with a DHL customer service agent in Sierra Leone on June 17, 2021 and the DHL customer service agent advised that the package had been delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tower Hill, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Alie Sesay signed for the package,” Amanda BuBose Smith stated in the affidavit.
In a press release issued on 27 May 2021 foreign Affairs officials in Freetown claimed they tried to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Harveys but the Harveys did not cooperate.
“We attempted to intervene and open up channels of communication for dialogue with the neighbors, but the neighbors proved to be noncooperative,” they stated, adding that “the Mission requested the State Department to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the allegations made by the neighbors but that also failed due to the hostility of the neighbors.”
An attorney representing the Harveys, Rachel Maimin, dismissed the foreign affairs statement regarding the conduct of the Harveys.
She says the Harvey family filed a lawsuit only after a year-long attempt to negotiate with the Mission’s representatives failed, as did good faith efforts by the New York City Department of Buildings.
“Janet and Joe Harvey have alleged facts relevant to this dispute in a sworn complaint in Federal court in their case against the Mission and others. The Mission has not yet appeared in court to answer these allegations, evidently choosing instead to respond in the media. However, the allegations in the complaint—as well as the accompanying photographs of the dangerous conditions at the Mission—speak for themselves,” Rachel Maimin wrote in a statement sent to the Africanist Press on 8 June 2021.
“The Harveys seek to make conditions at the Mission safe for their family, their neighbors, and the public and hope that the Mission appears as soon as possible in court so that this matter can be resolved,” she said.
A foreign affairs delegation from Sierra Leone led by the country’s foreign affairs minister, David Francis, met US State Department officials in Washington early this week to discuss Sierra Leone-US relations. Full details of the closed-door meeting have not been revealed, but State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the discussion did emphasize the strength of US-Sierra Leone relations and “shared values of improving democratic governance and respect for human rights, combatting corruption, and improving Sierra Leone’s investment climate.”
We have published on the Africanist Press website court documents and evidence of bank transactions in connection to the matter.
For more details see the Africanist Press website: https://africanistpress.com/2021/06/25/sierra-leone-risks-legal-default-on-incomplete-renovation-of-diplomatic-mission/
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