The current administrator for the estate of Rita Rogolifoi has agreed to settle for $130,000 the attorney\u2019s fee claim by lawyer Brien Sers Nicholas, who served as counsel for the former estate administrator.<\/p>\n
But Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman, who earlier determined that $99,256.76 is the reasonable amount in additional payment for Nicholas, rejected Nicholas\u2019 request for the court to hear their settlement deal, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
The Rogolifio estate previously paid $71,006.25 in legal fees to Nicholas, who was counsel for former estate administrator Enrique Seman.<\/p>\n
Clarence \u201cBud\u201d White, the current administrator for the Rogolifoi estate, submitted before the Superior Court last Dec. 19 an administrator\u2019s accounting of the estate\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
In the footnote of the report, White, through counsel Stephen N. Nutting, cited that Wiseman awarded Nicholas $99,256.76 in attorney\u2019s fees, but that Nicholas has indicated his desire to appeal the matter to the CNMI Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Nutting said such an appeal would cost the estate an estimated $15,000 to $25,000 in attorney\u2019s fees to defend and to perhaps bring a cross-appeal.<\/p>\n
Nutting said that, while White is confident in successfully defending against the appeal, he is aware of the fact that there always is a risk involved in litigation.<\/p>\n
More importantly, Nutting said, White is concerned that dragging the estate through another one to two years of litigation in court would create additional expenses for the estate.<\/p>\n
Nutting said that, as counsel for White, he therefore negotiated a full and final settlement in the amount of $130,000 to obtain a release of all of Nicholas\u2019 claims against the estate.<\/p>\n
It means the parties agreed that Nicholas should get an additional $130,000 instead of $99,256.76 that Wiseman earlier determined to be reasonable.<\/p>\n
Nicholas\u2019 original claim for payment of attorney\u2019s fees was $853,369.99, which he asserted is 30 percent of the estate\u2019s total recovery and pursuant to the retainer agreement and negotiations with the estate administrator.<\/p>\n
White also disclosed that the estate has a current balance of $368,546.12. He requested for payment of $200,000 to the Rogolifoi heirs, $130,000 to Nicholas (settlement), $6,953.79 for him (White), and $8,560 to the former attorney for the estate, Shiela Trianni.<\/p>\n
Last Dec. 23, Nicholas filed in court an ex parte motion requesting for a hearing about their joint motion for a court approval of their $130,000 settlement.<\/p>\n
That same day, Dec. 23, Wiseman approved White\u2019s request for payment of $200,000 for distribution among the heirs of Rogolifoi estate, $6,953 for him (White), and $8,560 for Trianni<\/p>\n
In a separate order also that same day, Wiseman denied Nicholas\u2019 ex parte motion.<\/p>\n
Ex parte refers to an application to the court by one of the parties to the action without the other party being present or heard.<\/p>\n
Wiseman said that for him to schedule a hearing to entertain a post-decision settlement on the very issue he ruled upon is without judicial precedent.<\/p>\n
With that ruling, Nicholas then filed a writ, asking the CNMI Superior Court to issue an order mandating Wiseman to vacate his Dec. 23 orders for partial distribution.<\/p>\n
Last week, CNMI Supreme Court Associate Justice Perry B. Inos issued an order suspending Wiseman\u2019s orders concerning the partial distribution of $200,000 to the heirs pending resolution of Nicholas\u2019 petition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The current administrator for the estate of Rita Rogolifoi has agreed to settle for $130,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":["post-188813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-party","tag-superior-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188813","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}