Hofschneider sues Castro, MPLA for $1.75 million

Former Marianas Public Lands Authority commissioner Henry Hofschneider has sued MPLA commissioner Ana Demapan-Castro, asking the Superior Court to award him monetary compensation and punitive damages of $1.75 million.

Hofschneider also asked the court to declare Demapan-Castro’s actions to suspend and terminate him from the MPLA’s top executive post as illegal—thus, null and void.

The Office of the Public Auditor had also initiated an investigation into Demapan-Castro’s actions that unilaterally suspended Hofschneider before his eventual departure from the agency, according to a complaint filed by his lawyer, Sean E. Frink.

The Superior Court action is separate from the lawsuit Hofschneider earlier filed with the U.S. District Court, where he accused Demapan-Castro of violating his due process rights in retaliation. The action, however, replaces Hofschneider’s administrative appeal regarding his suspension, which the federal court reportedly dismissed without prejudice to being refiled again.

Hofschneider also impleaded the MPLA board as co-defendant in the Superior Court suit. His lawyer said the board allowed Demapan-Castro to continue expending MPLA funds for her “personal vendetta” against Hofschneider in the form of legal defense fees and costs.

Demapan-Castro suspended Hofschneider last July 9 for alleged insubordination for causing a document requisition to be altered without the board’s consent and for leaving the MPLA board’s July 2, 2004, meeting without permission. The notice indicated that Hofschneider would receive full salary and benefits during the 15-day suspension.

MPLA board members Manuel P. Villagomez and Nicolas M. Nekai had separately questioned Hofschneider’s unilateral suspension, besides justifying that the commissioner had asked their permission to leave the July 2 meeting. Commonwealth Development Authority chair Sixto Igisomar had also written to Nekai that the adjustment made by Hofschneider to the requisition document was required by public law.

“Demapan-Castro evidently had already made up her mind to carry out her will, regardless of the facts and people that clearly indicated that she was wrong, what the other board members thought, and regardless of the commissioner’s rights, because she hand wrote on Villagomez’s July 19,2004 letter ‘over my dead body,’” Frink said. He said Villagomez’s letter proposed a meeting among board members and Hofschneider to settle the dispute between the commissioner and the board chair.

Frink assailed Demapan-Castro’s unilateral authority to act on behalf of the board, saying it violates the CNMI’s Open Government Meetings and Records Act, which states that: “The board shall act only by the affirmative vote of the majority of the five.”

He also impugned the validity of the Aug. 14, 2003 special board meeting that Demapan-Castro claimed to have given her unilateral authority to carry out the board’s actions. “Any action taken at meetings failing to comply with the provisions of the OGA shall be null and void,” Frink said, citing a statutory provision.

Frink also accused Demapan-Castro of retaliating against Hofschneider when she indefinitely suspended the commissioner, without pay, effective July 30, pending the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Finance regarding Hofschneider’s document alteration action. He said the chair’s decision failed to allow Hofschneider to correct an alleged wrongful action.

Despite Demapan-Castro’s July 19, 2004 request to the AG and the Secretary of Finance to promptly look into the matter, Frink said the chair failed to respond to the AG’s request that she identify Hofschneider’s alleged wrongdoing.

Frink said a draft report by the Finance Department allegedly exonerated Hofschneider.

Frink also accused Demapan-Castro of retaliating against Hofschneider by failing to pay him his annual leave benefits.