The Assumption of Sisters of Nairobi have asked a court to dismiss a case challenging the ownership of St Mary's Mission Hospital.
Making submissions before Justice Sila Munyao at the Nakuru Environment and Lands Court, the religious organisation urged the court to reject ownership claims by William Fryda.
Dr Fryda claimed he acquired three parcels of land in Langata and Sagana for the construction of the hospital, but the sisterhood said the property was acquired through donor funds.
They claimed a trust deed between them and Fryda was unenforceable in law and stated that the priest had failed to prove to the court that the property in dispute was held in his trust by the sisterhood.
They urged the court to grant orders preventing the priest from interfering with the hospital's operations.
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Fryda alleged that he was a doctor at Nazareth Hospital in Kiambu County when he learnt that the management of the hospital was being transferred to St Mary's Mission Hospital.
He says he approached the sisterhood's Superior General, Sister Maria Felix Mwikali, to work in the hospital. However, the takeover of Nazareth Hospital collapsed in 1997, forcing the sisterhood to start a hospital of its own.
Fryda and the superior general are said to have written a joint letter to the Nairobi Archbishop at the time, Rev Raphael Ndingi Mwana Nzeki, seeking permission to enable them to get funds from donors.
The letter formed the basis of extensive fundraising that raised millions of shillings to buy three parcels of lands.
In his submission, Fryda claimed he intended to have land to establish the hospital registered under an organisation, not an individual.
He said he instructed a lawyer, Macharia Njeru, to register it in the name of St Mary's Mission Hospital Nairobi.
