The president of Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary is disputing reports on the Internet that long-respected school is up for sale.
A labor court judge issued a writ of execution June 8 ordering sale of the property to raise money owed to a former president fired in 2007 over philosophical differences with the board of trustees.
Seminary officials say the money has already been paid and appealed the order to Liberia’s Supreme Court.
Legal counsel Pearl Brown-Bull confers with Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary President Rick Wilson. (Photo provided)
In 2012 a judge awarded about $240,000 to Lincoln Brownell, the seminary’s first Liberian-born president who led the school from 1998 until his suspension in 2006 and subsequent firing, in a lawsuit alleging unfair labor practices.
Richard Wilson, a Mercer University professor seconded to the seminary as president since March 2014, said June 17 the seminary and the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention paid off the final amount three months ago.
While the new court order did not state how much money the school is said to owe, Wilson said after inquiry officials were told that a check for $33,000 written two years ago did not clear the bank.
He said administrators produced bank records showing otherwise, and on June 16 the Baptist institution filed a request for judicial review with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Liberia.
Wilson said legal action by the former president’s lawyers has disrupted the seminary’s operations since his arrival to help rebuild the school in the aftermath of Liberia’s long-running civil war.
In the past two and a half years Wilson said he personally has received five arrest warrants, including two this month, which each time resulted in temporary closing of the school for periods ranging from three days to six weeks. With the help of friends familiar with Liberia’s legal system, so far he has been able to avoid arrest.
In the Supreme Court complaint, the seminary argues that the order to seize the campus is illegal and that publicity in media like a June 16 report in Front Page Africa that the religious entity is up for sale has caused “embarrassment, disrepute and damage” to the seminary community.
After receiving final payment of his settlement in March, Brownell filed a new lawsuit seeking $2.5 million that was dismissed May 12 due to statutes of limitation.
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