Brown asks court to junk Demapan case

Attorney general Pamela Brown branded the lawsuit filed against her by former Senate president Juan S. Demapan as a vindictive, personal attack, accusing the latter of having financial interest in the Malite estate.

Brown’s attorneys asked the Superior Court for summary judgment against Demapan’s lawsuit, which has sought to declare her as one occupying the attorney general post unlawfully.

Brown’s alleged illegitimacy as attorney general has also been the contention of the Malite estate in the controversial dispute on the $3.45 million land compensation claim by the estate. Demapan works as office manager in the law office of Antonio Atalig, lawyer of the estate.

“Although [Demapan] denies that this action is simply a vindictive, personal attack against Pam Brown for standing up for the public interest in the Malite case, the facts bear out a different story,” said assistant attorneys general Deborah Covington and James Livingstone.

“[Demapan] submitted a declaration, yet he did not refute that he had a financial interest in Malite estate, that this action was filed in response to the attorney general’s actions blocking the illegal payment to the estate, or that he offered to dismiss this case if the attorney general stopped her objections to the payment to the Malite estate,” they said.

They asserted that Brown has been holding the attorney general post legally, asking the court for a declaration of her legitimacy.

Brown’s attorneys contend that the Senate lawfully confirmed her on Nov. 17, 2003, with five senators voting favorably, including Paterno Hocog and James Mendiola. They said that the two senators were sworn in as senators on the same day.

The lawyers said that the constitutional provision requiring that elected officers take office on the second Monday of January following a regular general election does not apply in the cases of Hocog and Mendiola, who were both elected in special elections.

Demapan had earlier softened his lawsuit against Brown, amending his complaint to exclude his request to compel her to repay the salaries she received from the government as its chief attorney. In the second amended complaint he filed over a month ago, Demapan maintained that Brown has been holding the position of attorney general unlawfully.

Demapan filed the second amended complaint more than three months after he first filed the suit to prevent Brown from holding the attorney general post further. He had filed the first amended complaint to include Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig in the suit. In the amended versions of the complaint, however, Demapan sued Brown and Atalig in their official capacities only.

He wants the court to declare that the CNMI government, through Atalig, has been continuously paying Brown salary and expenses as attorney general, which he claims to be an unlawful expenditure of public funds. Demapan also asked the court to permanently prohibit Atalig from paying Brown the salary and expenses of an attorney general—whether in official or acting capacity.