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High Court voids order in Torres lawsuit vs governor
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Posted on Aug 08 2008
In a unanimous decision, the Commonwealth Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence that Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Rep. Stanley T. McGinnis Torres reached an agreement concerning Fitial’s reprogramming of funds to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
In a statement issued yesterday, the High Court voided an order by the Commonwealth Superior Court erroneously imposing a settlement between Fitial and Torres.
After Fitial declared a state of emergency and moved funds from a variety of sources, including individual legislator’s accounts, to CUC, Torres sued to have his money returned to him.
During the course of proceedings, the two parties told the Superior Court that a settlement had been reached. The statement said that Torres drafted a proposed settlement agreement. Fitial did not sign this proposed agreement and stated that he never agreed to it.
In 2007, Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo ordered Fitial to transfer $33,872 to Torres’ legislative account to settle the lawsuit, basing it on Torres’ statement that Fitial had admitted a mistake in reprogramming the lawmakers’ funds .
But Fitial, through the Attorney General’s Office, filed a motion to recuse and amend the judgment because, he said, he never agreed to the settlement.
In a letter to House Speaker Oscar M. Babauta in May 2007, Attorney General Matthew T. Gregory said Torres inaccurately stated that Fitial “admitted that mistakes were made in the improper deduction of 18 percent of our funds in FY 2006, in order to cover the administration’s mismanagement of CUC.”
“That statement of Rep. Torres is totally unfounded,” Gregory told Babauta.
In its unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that there was insufficient evidence that both parties had agreed to the settlement and declared it void.
The High Court remanded the case to the Superior Court for further proceedings.
The Supreme Court opinion was written by Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan, who was joined by Associate Justice John A. Manglona and Justice Pro Tem Timothy H. Bellas.
