{"id":370328,"date":"2022-06-14T06:03:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T20:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=370328"},"modified":"2022-06-14T06:03:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T20:03:06","slug":"dps-chiefs-motion-to-dismiss-denied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/dps-chiefs-motion-to-dismiss-denied\/","title":{"rendered":"DPS chief\u2019s motion to dismiss denied"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Robert Guerrero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Robert Guerrero\u2019s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him by the Office of the Attorney about alleged illegal overtime compensation has been denied.<\/p>\n

In his motion to dismiss, Guerrero, through his lawyer, Matthew Gregory, argued that the complaint filed by the OAG is time-barred pursuant to CNMI law, specifically 7 CMC \u00a7 2503(b), due to a statute of limitation of two years.<\/p>\n

That section provides a two-year statute of limitations for \u201cactions against the director of Public Safety, a police officer or other person duly authorized to serve process, for any act or omission in connection with the performance of official duties.\u201d Guerrero\u2019s lawyer argued that Guerrero\u2019s receipt of the alleged \u201cemergency pay\u201d overpayments was \u201cin connection with the performance of [his] official duties\u201d because the emergency pay was derived from his work as commissioner of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

In his order, judge pro tem Alberto Tolentino explained that after applying the ordinary meaning of the terms \u201cact\u201d and \u201comission\u201d to the statute, receiving \u201cemergency pay\u201d overpayments is neither an act or omission of Guerrero\u2019s duties as commissioner and therefore it does not apply in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the parties appear to focus on whether the court should read the phrase \u2018in connection with\u2019 broadly or narrowly to determine whether the commissioner\u2019s salary may be considered \u2018in connection with\u2019 the performance of his official duties, the court instead looks to the phrase \u2018act or omission.\u2019 Applying the ordinary meaning of these terms to the statute, the plain language of 7 CMC \u00a7 2503(b) evinces the intent of the Legislature to time-bar lawsuits brought against the commissioner for his performance of, or failure to perform, his official duties. Receiving a salary or overpay is neither an \u2018act\u2019 nor an \u2018omission\u2019 of the commissioner\u2019s duties; it is merely incidental to his job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the court found that 7 CMC \u00a7 2505, which applies a six-year statute of limitations instead of two, is more applicable in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming arguendo that plaintiff\u2019s cause of action accrued on the date of the first alleged overpayment made to defendant, plaintiff would have six years from Nov. 26, 2018, to bring this action, or until Nov. 26, 2024. Accordingly, plaintiff\u2019s complaint was timely filed, and defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss is denied,\u201d Tolentino said.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the OAG alleges that Guerrero received excessive compensation in the form of \u201ctyphoon emergency premium compensation, overtime, or extra pay\u201d for work he performed during Super Typhoon Yutu and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the complaint alleges that Guerrero received $46,892.96 in excess of his base annual salary of $54,000 due to receiving typhoon emergency premium pay at a rate of 2.5 times his base salary in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

As relief, the OAG seeks to recover the $46,892.96 paid to Guerrero in excess of his base salary in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Robert Guerrero\u2019s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":370329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-370328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-dps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370328","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}