Court denies request of man compelling Fund to pay his benefits

The Superior Court has denied a request of a man, who has a claim for disability, to compel Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund’s Board of Trustees administrator and chief executive officer Mark A. Aguon to immediately pay him his Fund benefits.

Associate Judge David A. Wiseman ruled that petitioner Jesus A. Arriola has been unable to obtain certification of his disability from a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

Arriola has also failed to establish that he has a clear legal right to the relief sought, said Wiseman in denying petitioner’s request for mandamus order.

The petitioner has asked the court to issue an order instructing Aguon to immediately pay or cause him to be paid the sum of 66 2/3 percent of his salary he was receiving at the time of his disability and separation of service of the government.

Arriola said the period commencing June 21, 2007, to present and continuing on the 15th and last day of each month pending final resolution of his claim for disability.

Wiseman, however, recognized the petitioner’s dire situation. He urged the Fund to act with all due urgency to approve or disapprove Arriola’s disability application without further delay.

The petition was heard on Sept. 2, 2008. Attorney Jeanne Rayphand, counsel for Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy Systems Inc., appeared for Arriola. Attorney Viola Alepuyo argued on behalf of Aguon.

Wiseman refused to dismiss the petition. He cited there is no statute expressly prohibiting the Fund’s administrator and chief executive officer from being sued in his official capacity.

Wiseman said the other issue that demands immediate resolution in the case was whether mandamus is appropriate.

The second issue, he said, is whether the Fund is required to pay an applicant estimated disability benefits pending official determination of eligibility by the Fund Board of Trustees.

On the appropriateness of mandamus, Wiseman said if the Board was required to pay interim payments to all members who submitted incomplete applications such as those applications without certifications of disability by physicians or otherwise, “it would invite abuse, fraud, and waste, because any member regardless of the merits of his or her application could receive interim payments without regard to the actual merits of his or her application.”

“The Court can not encourage such a situation,” Wiseman said.

On the estimated disability benefits issue, the judge said he agrees with Arriola that forcing him to wait patiently for the Board to conclude its process over his eligibility before he can collect interim payments that he claims he is due before any board determination is made would deprive him of a right of payment guaranteed by statute and perhaps his only means of self-sustenance.

“To obtusely insist upon strict adherence to an exhaustion doctrine when it is evident that any further delay to resolving this issue may irreparably harm Mr. Arriola is not the intention of the exhaustion doctrine,” he pointed out.