Malite case moves on despite death of lawyer Atalig

The defense in the controversial Malite case continues despite the death of Malite estate attorney Pedro M. Atalig, with the estate and the Marianas Public Lands Authority, its board and commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero asking the court to strike out the sworn declaration of Gov. Juan N. Babauta in support of embattled attorney general Pamela Brown.

Lawyers of the defendants said the governor’s statement that alleged that Brown never assumed her post in an acting capacity until she was sworn into office should be stricken out as it violates the doctrine of judicial estoppel.

The doctrine prevents a party that has taken one position in litigating a particular set of facts from later reversing its position when it is to its advantage to do so.

The governor’s statement supports the position that the 90-day deadline within which the Senate should confirm Brown after her June 16, 2003 nomination did not apply to the attorney general until a Senate faction confirmed her on Nov. 17, 2003.

Defense lawyers contend that the deadline fell on Sept. 14, 2003, when the Senate had yet to act on Brown’s nomination. On Sept. 17, 2003, another Senate faction explicitly rejected Brown’s nomination.

“This doctrine [estoppel] is intended to protect the courts from being manipulated by chameleonic litigants who seek to prevail, twice, on opposite theories,” the defense lawyers said, citing judicial precedent.

The lawyers said that, when the court subpoenaed Babauta earlier, the governor’s attorneys wanted the subpoena quashed on the ground that the witness lacked relevant knowledge on the Malite transactions.

Brown had sued the MPLA, its board, DeLeon Guerrero and Malite estate administrator Jesus Tudela to prevent the drawdown of some $3.45 million in land compensation claim from the government’s land compensation fund. The defendants are asking the court to dismiss the case on the ground that the lawsuit was brought to court not by a lawful attorney general.

“After asserting that the purported attorney general, Pamela Brown, Gov. Juan N. Babauta and [Finance secretary] Fermin M. Atalig…‘has no relevant first hand knowledge of the matters in this case’ and declared so under the penalty of perjury in their motion to quash subpoenas, plaintiff [Brown] seeks to file declarations for Clyde Lemons Jr. and Babauta,” MPLA attorney Matthew Gregory and other defense lawyers said.

“This motion is even more shocking than the last attempt to submit supplemental documents in this case,” they said.

The lawyers asked the court to reject Brown’s supplemental documents and insisted on the dismissal of the lawsuit.