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Wetland owner insists on her right to compensation
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Posted on Sep 14 2005
A former wetland owner whose property was taken by the government to protect endangered species said the legislative intent behind the Land Compensation Act and its amendment clearly showed that lawmakers authorized compensation for wetland-taking, even though for not right-of-way purposes.
Rosario DLG. Kumagai insisted, however, that interpreting legislative intent need not be resorted to in the first place because the language of Public Law 13-17, as amended by PL 14-29, is clear and unambiguous.
Kumagai’s attorney, Brien Sers Nicholas, meanwhile, said that the legislative intent to allow compensation for wetland taken for purposes other than right-of-way could be seen from the law’s legislative history, contrary to the position of Attorney General Pamela Brown.
Sers Nicholas pointed out that, while some lawmakers clarified that the bill that would later become P.L. 14-29 specifically pertained to right-of-way takings, it was later at the conference committee level when the Legislature clarified the intent of the amendment.
The lawyer quoted a letter from the Committee of Natural Resources chaired by Janet Maratita to the Marianas Public Lands Authority on Nov. 9, 2004.
“These documents [P.L. 14-29 and a committee report] indicated that it was specifically our legislative intent that the provisions of the latest amendments apply to all pending claims subject to compensation under Public Law 13-17 as amended,” Maratita’s letter allegedly stated.
Kumagai, a dialysis patient, also said earlier that Brown’s lawsuit blocking the payment from the government’s land compensation fund runs contrary to a settlement agreement she reached with the Commonwealth Health Center, which had sued her for unpaid medical bills.
In the settlement between the CHC and Kumagai, Brown’s office, on behalf of the government hospital, agreed to disburse the remaining funds from her land compensation claim in the amount of $79,704.10, which is being held by the MPLA.
