Castle Oil Company’s lawyer, Badou Conteh, has clashed with Slok Air’s lawyer, Emanuel Chemi, at the Kanifing Magistrates Court over the proper name of the airline.
 
Slok Air was dragged to court by Castle over fuel supplied to the defendant (Slok Air) on two occasions for which it had failed to pay.

When the case was called yesterday before Magistrate Mbackeh, the plaintiff’s lawyer tendered photocopies of two documents, showing the transactions between Castle and Slok Air.

The defendant’s counsel objected to the documents, pointing out that they were secondary and that his client had never been supplied with notice to produce the originals.

Earlier on, the managing director of Castle, in his testimony, had told the court that Slok Air had the originals of the documents.

The defendant’s lawyer insisted that his company’s name is Slok Air International Gambia Ltd, and not Slok Air as written on the documents.

Lawyer Chemi said his client is not a party to the suit and there was no stamp on the documents to certify that they came from his client.

Responding to the defense counsel’s objection, Lawyer Conteh said that the defendant knew that it has no case before the court and therefore wanted to use the opportunity to waste the time of the court. He noted that a magistrates court is a summary jurisdiction and can deliver justice without fear or favour.

Lawyer Conteh pointed out that even on the aircrafts of the company itself, the name of the company is clearly written as Slok Air and not as Slok Air International Gambia Ltd.

At that juncture, the presiding magistrate said that he would need to adjourn the case for a ruling on the objection raised by the defense counsel, but Counsel Conteh appealed to the court to make the adjournment a short one, stating the possibility of Slok Air officials running away and leaving his client in limbo, if the case should drag on for too long.
The case was adjourned to September 23 for ruling.