A United States District Court in the Southern District of New York has dismissed a $165m judgment debt case against the University of Ghana. 

In a 14-paged ruling, the District Judge, Naomi Reice Buchwald said the petitioner did not have personal jurisdiction over the case. 

She subsequently ordered the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion. 

“For the foregoing reasons, the Court grants respondent’s motion to dismiss the Petition for lack of personal jurisdiction.”

“The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to terminate the motion pending at ECF No. 36 and to close this case,” the ruling concluded. 

The University of Ghana had earlier debunked allegations that it has been slapped with a $165m judgment debt by a New York Court for erroneously cancelling the Africa Integras LLC Contract in 2018.

In a press release dated August 6, 2021, the University said the claims are “misrepresentations and falsehoods. 

The University thus urged the populace to disregard same. 

“the circumstances of the Project and its termination are being falsely represented. Further, the nature of the New York Petition has similarly wrongly been described, the institution said in a press release signed by Mrs Emelia Agyei-Mensah. 

Setting the record straight, Mrs Emelia Agyei-Mensah added that, “Contrary to certain reports seen in the media, the University can categorically confirm that no court judgment has been issued against the University in relation to the Project.

Reports had indicated that a New York court handing Global insurer Chubb Limited a $165 million arbitration award against the country’s premier University for failing to honour its side of a flagship development partnership backed by the U.S. government.

A deal which was terminated in 2018 due to the University’s failure to procure a letter of credit, had appeared to have gone sour, when a new Vice-chancellor took office and openly voiced his opposition to the contract in a series of inflammatory letters and statements to the press. 

However, according to Africa Integras, the company that entered into the said contract with the institution, its outfit had already poured tens of millions of dollars into the project expansion, which was only a year away from completion.

As a result, the case was taken to the United States District Court for litigation.