Brown defends her legitimacy in court

Attorney General Pamela Brown defended her legitimacy at the Superior Court, asserting that the Senate has validly confirmed her nomination on Nov. 17, 2003.

In a court pleading regarding the controversial $3.45-million land compensation claim by the Malite estate, Brown’s attorneys, assistant attorney general Benjamin Sachs and Deborah L. Covington, said the rejection of her nomination by the bloc of Sen. Pete Reyes on Sept. 17, 2003 was invalid.

The attorneys said the 90-day deadline within which to confirm Brown after Gov. Juan N. Babauta nominated her to the attorney general’s post on June 16, 2003 did not apply to her because she never served in a temporary or acting capacity. The 90-day period from the time of her nomination fell on Sept. 14, 2003.

“Pam Brown is the duly appointed and confirmed attorney general for the Northern Mariana Islands. Defendants’ assertions to the contrary are merely a desperate attempt to divert the court’s attention and to prevent this court from reaching the merits of plaintiff’s claims,” Sachs and Covington said.

They said that any issues relating to the appointment and confirmation of Brown as attorney general are nonjusticiable—political questions that are not appropriate for judicial determination.

Brown, on behalf of the CNMI government, sued the Marianas Public Lands Authority, its board and acting commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero, and Malite estate Jesus Tudela to stop the payment of some $3.45 million to the estate.

Her attorneys opposed the request of the defendants to dismiss the case, asserting that they are challenging the MPLA’s attempt to charge millions of dollars to the CNMI government for an allegedly spurious land compensation claim.

They also pinpointed alleged irregularities in the MPLA’s approval of the land compensation claim by the Malite estate on Aug. 13, 2004.

“The public notice concerning MPLA’s regular meeting made no mention of the fact that defendant MPLA, or the board of directors of the MPLA, were planning to discuss payment of land compensation with respect to the Angel Malite estate,” they said.

What the Aug. 10, 2003 notice mentioned was that the MPLA board planned to discuss an appraisal report of the estate, they added.

Brown initiated the lawsuit on behalf of the CNMI government, citing a “strong appearance of ethical impropriety and conflicts of interest,” in the MPLA’s approval of the $3.45-million land compensation claim by the Malite estate, a matter that had been decided by the Trust Territory court in 1978.