Govt faces no sanctions over cancelled Malite hearing

The Superior Court has denied the request of the Malite estate, the Marianas Public Lands Authority and its officials to impose sanctions against the CNMI government in connection with the last-minute withdrawal of an injunction request on the day it was scheduled for hearing.

Associate judge Juan T. Lizama rejected the request for sanctions that totaled more than $30,000 in costs being assessed by lawyers of the MPLA, its board, commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero, and the Malite estate.

The scheduled Dec. 23, 2004 hearing on Brown’s injunction request did not push through due to her attorneys’ withdrawal of that request on the day of the hearing.

A day earlier, Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig’s decision to revoke his authorization on the drawdown of the $3.45 million being claimed by the Malite estate from the government’s land compensation fund rendered moot the injunction request, since the monies could not be disbursed without the secretary’s authorization.

Several government officials, including Gov. Juan N. Babauta, appeared in court for the Dec. 23 hearing pursuant to subpoenas issued to them by the court. The subpoenaed officials might have been called to the witness stand had the injunction request hearing pushed through.

Lizama ruled that the issue depended on whether Brown’s attorneys should have notified the defendants of their intention to withdraw the injunction request on Dec. 22 or Dec. 23. This determination would depend on whether the attorneys should have known that the Finance secretary’s decision on Dec. 22 was sufficient to prevent the disbursement of funds.

Earlier, assistant attorney general Benjamin Sachs said that he spoke with the lawyer for the then defendant Commonwealth Development Authority only on the morning of Dec. 23. The CDA indicated at that time that it would not process the drawdown request.

“It seems reasonable that plaintiff’s counsel might worry that CDA might still act on the approval and might want assurances to the contrary from CDA before withdrawing the motion for preliminary injunction,” the judge said. “This is simply conservative lawyering, not sanctionable conduct.”

The decision came out despite the estate’s contention that Brown’s attorneys could have easily asked the Finance secretary to withdraw his authorization to prevent the funds drawdown even before the filing of the lawsuit.

Lizama said he was disappointed with the timeliness of the CDA and Finance department’s actions in preventing the drawdown.

“Both agencies have behaved with less consistency and diligence than the people of the Commonwealth have a right to expect. In so doing, they cost both sides and the court, much unnecessary time and expense,” the judge said.

“However, the attorney general’s office does not supervise the individuals involved and this conduct cannot be imputed to the attorney general,” he added.

The defendants’ had asked the court to assess the government a total of over $30,000 in attorney’s fees and costs. Malite estate attorneys Pedro and Antonio Atalig had asked for $28,260; MPLA board attorney Mark S. Smith, $3,262.50-plus.

MPLA attorney Matthew Gregory claimed to have rendered 18.75 hours of work, while DeLeon Guerrero’s lawyer, Ramon K. Quichocho claimed 19.55 hours. Both lawyers did not indicate their hourly rates in their submissions to the court.