{"id":394579,"date":"2023-06-26T06:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=394579"},"modified":"2023-06-26T06:06:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T20:06:00","slug":"customs-chief-ex-govt-officials-reach-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/customs-chief-ex-govt-officials-reach-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Customs chief, ex-gov\u2019t officials reach settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_394582\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-394582\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Jose-C.-Mafnas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-394582\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Jose-C.-Mafnas-1024x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-394582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jose C. Mafnas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The parties in the lawsuit filed by Division of Customs and Bio-Security director Jose C. Mafnas have reached a settlement and have agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice.<\/p>\n<p>Mafnas, former Finance secretary David DLG Atalig, and former chief of staff William Castro filed a stipulation\u2014essentially an agreement\u2014 with the U.S. District Court for the NMI last week informing the court that they have reached a settlement in their case.<\/p>\n<p>After reviewing the stipulation, District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona dismissed the case, with each party bearing its own costs and fees.<\/p>\n<p>According to Manglona\u2019s order last Thursday, the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement reached between the parties. \u201cThe court\u2019s June 14, 2023, order to show cause against plaintiff is discharged and the hearing thereon scheduled for July 5, 2023, is vacated,\u201d the order added.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2022, Mafnas filed a complaint against Castro, Atalig, and the CNMI government over his termination, alleging it was unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>In his lawsuit, Mafnas, a civil service employee, said he was transferred to a non-existent position in the Department of Commerce because he was supporting incumbent Gov. Arnold I. Palacios who was running against other candidates in last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<p>Mafnas asked the court to prevent Atalig from removing him from his position as Customs director or to reinstate him pending court proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>Mafnas also sought reasonable attorney\u2019s fees and costs, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and damages in an amount to be determined in court.<\/p>\n<p>Last August 2022, Manglona issued a preliminary injunction in favor of Mafnas to preserve the status quo based on the parties\u2019 stipulation and reinstating him as Customs and Biosecurity director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The parties in the lawsuit filed by Division of Customs and Bio-Security director Jose C&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":394582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394579","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=394579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}