\u201cWhat the Attorney General has done by filing the writ of prohibition is shocking,\u201d said Michael Dotts, the attorney for the Aguon family and other families who seek to collect on judgments entered against the Commonwealth Health Center for medical malpractice.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Office of the Attorney General filed a writ of prohibition with the Supreme Court. The petition for a writ of prohibition requests the Supreme Court to order Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho not to hear Aguon\u2019s claim that the government must pay their judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Aguon family lost a child because of the medical malpractice of CHC,\u201d explained Dotts. \u201cThe Aguon family obtained a judgment. The government then simply refused to pay. We all know that what the government is doing is wrong and we believe that the Superior Court will put an end to the government\u2019s disgraceful behavior. So what the Attorney General\u2019s Office has apparently decided to do is to try to stop the Superior Court from hearing this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition for a writ of probation argues that the Superior Court has no jurisdiction to find that it was improper under the Balanced Budget Act not to appropriate money to pay judgments. \u201cThe argument is illogical,\u201d said Dotts. \u201cThe Superior Court entered the judgment against the government in favor of the Aguons. How can the Superior Court not have jurisdiction to make the government pay the judgment?\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition also argues that plaintiffs\u2019 lack standing as their injuries are self-inflicted. \u201cSelf-inflicted injury? Unbelievable!\u201d said Dotts. \u201cThis argument that the Aguon family is somehow responsible for the situation they are in after CHC committed malpractice that resulted in the death of their child and the government\u2019s refusal to pay, is ludicrous,\u201d It is also highly offensive,\u201d said Dotts. <\/p>\n
Dotts continued: \u201cThe Superior Court through Judge Camacho gave us the chance to get documents and to have a hearing in May to prove what we all know to be true\u2014that the government purposely does not pay judgments even though funds are available. The government wants to spend the people\u2019s money on travel and other perks, instead of paying off lawful obligations. This is wrong and violates the Balanced Budget Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s Office does not want to have to provide documents and answer questions in a deposition and on the witness stand because they know they have no defense. They are afraid the Superior Court will put an end to their lawless behavior. The petition filed by the Attorney General to shut down the case is an act of desperation of a guilty defendant, and we are sure the Supreme Court will see it for what it is.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat the Attorney General has done by filing the writ of prohibition is shocking,\u201d said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2626,91,88,139],"class_list":["post-224461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-attorney-general","tag-chc","tag-superior-court","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224461","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\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}