{"id":18602,"date":"2011-09-21T06:47:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T06:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=18602"},"modified":"2011-09-21T06:47:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T06:47:50","slug":"govendo-calls-for-a-chamber-meeting-no-compromise-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/govendo-calls-for-a-chamber-meeting-no-compromise-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Govendo calls for a chamber meeting; no compromise yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Ferdie de la Torre<br \/>\nReporter<\/div>\n<p>Superior Court associate judge Kenneth L. Govendo called to his chamber yesterday the lawyers involved in the NMI Retirement Fund&#8217;s request for a temporary restraining order against Public Law 17-51.<\/p>\n<p>Saipan Tribune learned, however, that the chamber meeting did not end with a compromise or ruling. Govendo ordered the parties in the case to submit proposed findings of facts and submissions of law and that&#8217;s when he will make a decision in the matter.<\/p>\n<p>The Fund is asking for a TRO to stop the enforcement of Public Law 17-51, which allows Fund beneficiaries to sue on behalf of the pension program if the board refuses to bring such a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Govendo called for yesterday&#8217;s in-chamber meeting after hearing the parties&#8217; closing arguments.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Carolyn M. Kern argued on behalf of the Fund, while assistant attorney general Michael A. Stanker argued as counsel for Fitial, Inos, and the Superior Court&#8217;s clerk of court, in opposing the TRO request.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Michael Dotts made the closing arguments on behalf of retirees Mariano Taitano, Roman F. Tudela, and Patricia Guerrero who, as intervenors, also oppose the TRO bid.<\/p>\n<p>The TRO hearing began on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Fund had also named clerk of court Bernadita Sablan as a co-defendant to stop her from accepting any lawsuit filed pursuant to Public Law 17-51, also known as the Derivative Beneficiaries Act.<\/p>\n<p>Fund counsel Kern questioned the Act&#8217;s constitutionality and asserted that the TRO will ensure that assets are invested to maximize the length of time that their benefit payments will continue.<\/p>\n<p>Kern cited the \u201cimmeasurable hardship\u201d the Fund will face if a TRO is not issued. She said the hardship will be evident when the Fund runs out of money and is no longer to able to make pension payments.<\/p>\n<p>Stanker said all the Fund board needs to do to remedy the situation in which the Fund&#8217;s agents have quit is to hire new agents.<\/p>\n<p>Dotts pointed out that the Fund still has other managers beside those who have quit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ferdie de la Torre Reporter Superior Court associate judge Kenneth L. Govendo called to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}