![\"Pellegrino\"](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Tony-Pellegrino.jpg\")
<\/a>Dotts pointed out that all these court judgments against the government are debts of the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey think they passed the budget, but they have not passed a balanced budget because there is no provision for paying judgments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That means the budget is right now in violation of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there could be an action to try to, I guess, undo the budget because it\u2019s not a balanced budget,\u201d he said, adding that he believes the amount owed Pellegrino is not in this budget so they\u2019re not getting any payment.<\/p>\n
In 2013, then-attorney general Joey Patrick San Nicolas disclosed that the government\u2019s outstanding and unpaid judgments and settlements have reached more than $27 million, excluding accruing interests. It was reported at that time that of the $27 million, over $5.9 million represents the amount the Department of Lands and Natural Resources owes Marine Revitalization Corp. and Pellegrino.<\/p>\n
In 2010, the government\u2019s debt to Pellegrino and his MRC had ballooned to $8.5 million.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s debt, however, was reduced to $5 million after the CNMI Supreme Court took away about $3 million in interest. The high court ruled that judgments against the CNMI don\u2019t accrue interest.<\/p>\n
Pellegrino established MRC to build the $3.5 million Outer Cove Marina in the mid-1990\u2019s. MRC and the government\u2019s dispute began in 2001 after DLNR not only failed to bar commercial vessels from renting slip space at Smiling Cove but also actively solicited commercial lessees.<\/p>\n
In 2005, DLNR agreed to a court judgment ordering it to pay $5.6 million to Pellegrino or MRC. DLNR did not comply with the order, resulting in three judgments in favor or MRC.<\/p>\n
Pellegrino passed away in June 2013. A probate has opened for Pellegrino in the Superior Court.<\/p>\n
Dotts said yesterday that one of the assets of Pellegrino\u2019s estate is the judgment against the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still hoping to collect on that judgment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dotts said the reason why the judgment is now only over $4 million is because the CNMI Supreme Court had decided that judgments against the government don\u2019t earn interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you get a judgment against the government, and they don\u2019t pay you and if it is a normal breach of contract judgment it doesn\u2019t earn interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dotts said the government\u2019s debt that reached over $8 million is now down to over $4 million because the interest was wiped out.<\/p>\n
Dotts said the case went up to the CNMI Supreme Court because Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman had issued an order in aid of judgment and Pellegrino and MRC were collecting on themselves by selling tax credits.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court and ruled that that judgment to Pellegrino and MRC must be paid by legislative appropriation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sue the government, you go through all the process, you get a judgment and the government can ignore you and doesn\u2019t have any increase in liability,\u201d Dotts said.<\/p>\n
On collection efforts, Dotts said they are talking with the government about a tax credit program as the governor could do a tax credit program.
\nOtherwise, he said, payment requires a legislative appropriation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The CNMI government still owes the estate of Anthony Pellegrino over $4 million and, with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":198568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,26,346,3625],"class_list":["post-198567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-cnmi","tag-dlnr","tag-mrc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198567","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=198567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}