Jr. Larry Hillbroom’s lawyers face contempt charge

Federal Court Judge Alex Munson yesterday ordered five lawyers and their clients, Junior Larry Hillbroom and his guardian Naoko Imeong, to appear in court next month to justify why they should not be held in contempt for violation of earlier orders.

Attorneys David J. Lujan, Barry J. Israel, Kevin P.H. Sumida, counsels for the two, and Thomas Tarpley, of the Junior Larry Hillbroom Trust, could face disqualification or suspension from the civil complaint filed by James E. Hollman.

If found guilty of contempt of court, they could also be compelled to compensate the plaintiff for losses sustained due to the conduct of the defendants as well as attorney’s fees and expenses. It could also weaken their defense against the case alleging bad faith litigation.

Judge Munson said the burden on the hearing set for Feb. 7, will be “upon defendants to show cause why they should not be held in contempt and found to have engaged in bad faith litigation conduct.”

His order stemmed from failure by the defendants to comply with three court rulings issued last year.

On Oct. 12, 1999, Judge Munson found counsels for Ms. Imeong and Junior Larry had acted in bad faith and ordered them to pay Mr. Hollman’s attorneys the fees and costs related to time spent in preparing in appearing to oppose motions filed by Ms. Imeong in the federal court and the CNMI Superior Court on or after Sept. 20 last year.

The federal court also prohibited Ms. Imeong and any of her attorney from taking any action to delay the arbitration sought by Mr. Hollman over the share of heirs from the late businessman Larry Hillblom’s estate, including that of Junior Larry’s and Milagros Feliciano’s.

On Oct. 20, Judge Munson ordered the defendants to turn over $4.2 million to the court in order to comply with any judgment of award from the arbitration proceedings.

Although Mr. Hill agreed on Nov. 18 hearing to petition in one week the CNMI Superior Court to release the amount in question to the federal court, which he did but 11 days later.

According to Judge Munson’s latest ruling, the other attorneys for Junior Larry and his guardian had ignored the scheduled hearings on the contempt of court charge as they believed the federal court does not have jurisdiction on the case.

Again in the last hearing held Dec. 30, they failed to show up, prompting the court to order them to appear next month to hear their defense.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan has ruled that lawyer Kathleen V. Fisher, who works for the law firm Morrison & Fester, counsel for the Hillblom estate executor Bank of Saipan, has not engaged in improprieties as alleged by certain during the probate proceedings.

The court suspended its pro hac vice admission of Ms. Fisher as attorney for the executor last March 22, 1999 over alleged professional misconduct and ordered an investigation to protect the integrity of the probate and the CNMI courts.

But on Oct. 5, citing her critical role in bringing about the closing of the complex estate, the court reinstated Ms. Fisher, but instructed Special Master Pedro Atalig to complete the probe, who later released a report highly in favor of the lawyer.

Based from this report, Chief Justice Demapan issued the order last Jan. 3 reinstating unconditionally Ms. Fisher as counsel for the executor and that she should not be required to disclose whether she has been suspended or disciplined in her law practice.