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Brown’s lawyers want Demapan’s suit junked
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Posted on May 26 2005
The question on the legitimacy of Pamela Brown as attorney general remains hanging at the Superior Court, which has yet to rule on the lawsuit filed by former Senate president Juan Demapan against her.
The ball is in the hands of Superior Court presiding judge Robert Naraja on whether the case would be junked outright or proceed to trial.
Naraja yesterday heard the oral arguments of the parties. The judge has yet to issue a ruling.
Brown’s attorneys have asked the court for summary judgment that would junk Demapan’s claims.
The former Senate president wants the court to declare that the CNMI government, through Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig, has been continuously paying Brown salary and expenses as attorney general, which he claims to be an unlawful expenditure of public funds.
He had asked the court to permanently prohibit Atalig from paying Brown the salary and expenses of an attorney general—whether in official or acting capacity.
Demapan, through his attorney Antonio Atalig, contends that Brown’s confirmation deadline fell on Sept. 14, 2003 following her nomination to the attorney general post by Gov. Juan N. Babauta on June 16, 2003.
Brown contends that the deadline had not lapsed when a Senate faction composed of five members confirmed her on Nov. 17, 2003. Assistant attorneys general James Livingstone and Deborah Covington appeared in yesterday’s hearing on behalf of Brown.
But Demapan questioned the validity of the Nov. 17 confirmation by saying that two of the senators who voted to confirm Brown—Paterno Hocog and Joseph Mendiola—could not have assumed office at that time yet since their office should have begun sometime in January 2004 after the 2003 elections.
Senate legal counsel Michael Ernest also appeared in yesterday’s hearing on behalf of the Senate. Earlier, he filed a document that told the court that the Senate is the final judge on the qualification of its members, not the court.
