Lizama voids decision authorizing payment of $54,901 to surveyors

Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama has voided his earlier order that authorized the estate of Rita Kaipat to pay $54,901 to surveyors.

Saying he inadvertently signed the order, Lizama ordered Rita Kaipat estate’s administrator, Luis Pelisamen, and his counsel, Joseph Arriola, to retrieve the money from surveyors Alfred K. Pangelinan of Meridian Surveying and Juan I. Castro of Pacific Lands Surveying no later than April 4, 2006.

Lizama, in his order issued Thursday, ruled that the order that he signed on Feb. 7, 2006 was procured improperly.

The judge reminded Arriola that it is his responsibility to make sure that the estate’s funds are disbursed properly pursuant to a court order after notice and a hearing.

Lizama stated that he learned about the disbursement of the money from the Rita Kaipat estate to pay the claims of the surveyors during Tuesday’s hearing.

He said the surveyors, through counsel Antonio M. Atalig, prepared an order for distribution after estate administrator Pelisamen, through Arriola, filed a notice to the parties indicating that the estate would pay the claim.

Lizama said he inadvertently signed the order.

However, he said, Arriola failed to file notice for hearing to approve the surveyors’ claim.

Lizama said Atalig also failed to notify the parties regarding the order.

“Thus, there was no hearing on the matter. It does not appear to the court that there was agreement among all the parties to make the disbursement,” he stressed.

Arriola, the judge said, knew or should have known that for an order to be effective, notice and the opportunity for a hearing must first be provided.

Instead, the judge pointed out, Arriola relied on the order knowing that its procurement was defective.

He set a hearing for April 11, 2006 at 1:30pm to determine the status of retrieving the funds.

In December 2005, Lizama denied the surveyors’ reimbursement claim in the total amount of $50,386.

In that order, Lizama said he acknowledged that the surveyors are entitled to reimbursement for any work that was performed and documented.

He, however, stated that one problem with the surveyors’ claim is that their documentation was insufficient.

The Rita Kaipat estate was awarded by the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority $4.7 million in land compensation settlement. Some $1.3 million of the amount was equally split among three other estates.