Court to Hear Contested Motions Over Seaview Golf Course Today | News

The Sixth Judicial Circuit, Civil Law Court for Montserrado County is expected today to hear two consolidated, high-stakes motions that will determine the fate of the famed Seaview Golf Course in Virginia, outside Monrovia.

The case, which pits the Government of Liberia against prominent Liberian businessman and investor Dr. C. Nelson Oniyama brings to a head a protracted dispute over 5.58 acres of prime real estate within the historic Hotel Africa complex.

At the center of the dispute is the Seaview Golf Course, the country’s only functional 18-hole golf course, now known as the Dr. Oniyama Seaview Country Club Liberia.

The Court, presided over by the Resident Circuit Judge, has consolidated for hearing two directly conflicting applications:  A Petition for Judicial Review and Prohibition filed by Dr. Oniyama against the Liberia Land Authority (LLA), and a Motion to Cancel Deeds filed by the Republic of Liberia, through the Ministry of Justice and the LLA, against Seaview Golf Course Inc.

In his petition, Dr. Oniyama invokes the supervisory and certiorari jurisdiction of the Civil Law Court to review, quash and prohibit actions of an administrative agency acting beyond its powers.

He is challenging the legality of a public announcement issued by the LLA in May 2025, in which the Authority, through its Assistant Director for Public Relations, ordered all occupants of the Hotel Africa lands, including the golf course and the historic presidential villas, to vacate within 90 days and submit all deeds for “verification and redocumentation.”

Dr. Oniyama contends that the notice amounts to an illegal administrative eviction.

His argument rests on three pillars: First, vested property rights under Article 22(a) of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia. He argues that he holds Development Grant Deeds that were duly probated, registered, and recorded at the Center for National Documents and Records Agency (CNDRA), and upon which he has expended millions of United States dollars to develop, maintain, and secure the facility. Such vested rights, he argues, cannot be taken without due process of law.

Second, estoppel by grant. The Government itself, acting through the LLA, issued the Development Grant Deed for 90 years. Dr. Oniyama relied on that grant to transform an overgrown swamp into an international-standard golf course, an investment recognized by the Liberia Golf Association which renamed the facility in his honor. The State, he argues, cannot now approbate and reprobate – grant title with one hand and seize it with the other without judicial process.

Third, lack of jurisdiction to cancel a deed. Only a court of competent jurisdiction can cancel a registered deed in Liberia. The LLA’s blanket 90-day vacate notice, issued without a hearing, without a Board Resolution, and without a court order, is ultra vires, arbitrary, and an abuse of administrative power.

Dr. Oniyama therefore prays the Court to issue a Writ of Judicial Review and Prohibition restraining the LLA, its agents and assigns from evicting him or interfering with the Seaview Golf Course pending full compliance with due process; Declare the LLA’s May 2025 notice unconstitutional, void and unenforceable as applied to him; and deny and dismiss the Government’s Motion to Cancel Deeds with costs against the State.

For its part, prosecution argues that the entire conveyance is void from the beginning and must be expunged from the public records.

Through the Ministry of Justice and the LLA, the Government contends that the Development Grant Deed conveying 5.58 acres of Hotel Africa public land to Seaview Golf Course for 90 years suffers from incurable procedural and statutory defects.

The State relies on two principal grounds: Violation of Article 55(b) and (c) of the Land Rights Act Regulations. The Government argues that Hotel Africa is Government Land held in the public trust. Under the Land Rights Act of 2018 and its attendant Regulations, any sale, lease, or long-term concession of Government Land exceeding a prescribed threshold must be subject to public, open and competitive bidding. No bidding, no public notice, and no independent valuation was ever conducted and Unilateral Execution Without Legal Authority. The deed in question was allegedly executed by a single signatory – former LLA Chairman Atty. J. Adams Manobah – without a formal Resolution of the Board of Commissioners, without the statutory Inter-Agency Land Technical Committee review, and without concurrence from the Ministry of Justice as required for disposition of public lands.

Consequently, the State prays the Court to declare the Development Grant Deed and all derivative deeds null and void ab initio, order the CNDRA to cancel and expunge them from its records, and restore absolute title, possession and control to the Republic of Liberia.

Today’s hearing will force the Court to resolve two fundamental questions of Liberian land law that will have far-reaching precedent on Substantive Validity: Was the original grant to Seaview Golf Course so procedurally flawed as to be void ab initio, or is it merely voidable and thus protected until set aside by a court?

On Procedural Remedy: Even if the grant was flawed, can the LLA reclaim public land by administrative notice and verification exercise, or must the Government, like any other litigant, proceed in court to cancel a deed that is already probated and registered?

Legal practitioners watching the case say the outcome will test the balance between the Government’s sweeping mandate under the Land Rights Act to recover public lands, and the constitutional guarantee of property rights and security of tenure for investors holding registered deeds.

The matter is expected to draw a battery of lawyers, golf enthusiasts, and occupants of Hotel Africa. Ruling on the consolidated motions is expected to be reserved following arguments today.