{"id":402247,"date":"2023-11-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=402247"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"OAG-declines-to-represent-Saipan-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/OAG-declines-to-represent-Saipan-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"OAG declines to represent Saipan mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan has informed Saipan Mayor Ramon Blas Camacho, who is being sued by Construction & Material Supply over alleged unpaid invoices, that the OAG cannot represent him in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Citing the CNMI Constitution, Manibusan said the OAG does not legally represent mayors or any agencies of the municipalities.<\/p>\n

CMS\u2019 complaint arises from unpaid invoices for quarry products provided to Camacho\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cCMS has provided this office with a copy of its complaint against you as the mayor of Saipan and the Municipality of Saipan. \u2026Under the Commonwealth Constitution, the Office of the Attorney General does not provide legal representation to the mayors or any agencies of the municipalities,\u201d Manibusan said in a recent letter to Camacho.<\/p>\n

Manibusan advised Camacho to hire a private lawyer instead.<\/p>\n

That prompted Camacho to hire Michael N. Evangelista as his lawyer in responding to the lawsuit. Last Wednesday, Evangelista filed with the Superior Court a notice of appearance as counsel for Camacho.<\/p>\n

In addition to his notice of appearance as Camacho\u2019s lawyer, Evangelista also gave notice that the defense intends to move for the dismissal of the case before Nov. 20, citing Commonwealth Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and (6).<\/p>\n

\u201cService of the summons and complaint is acknowledged\u2026to have been effected not earlier than Oct. 19, 2023, with an answer or other response thereby due within 30 days. Accordingly, no response is due earlier than Monday, Nov. 20,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In response to CMS citing United States v. Borja<\/em>, Evangelista said that that particular court decision\u2014which says that a municipality can sue or be sued\u2014only applies to the Rota and Tinian municipalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff is also put on notice that United States v. Borja, 2003 MP 8, cited in paragraph 5 of the complaint, does not hold that the Municipality of Saipan can sue or be sued. The express holding of that case is limited to the Municipality of Tinian, and the constitutional amendment on which it is based applies only to Rota and Tinian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CMS is suing the Office of the Mayor and Camacho to collect on $36,126.25 that it said represents unpaid material that it provided the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

CMS, a quarry operator at the Kannat Tabla quarry, is asking the Superior Court to compel Camacho and the municipality of Saipan to pay $36,126.25, along with the legal costs associated with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

CMS explained in their lawsuit that the amount had reached this sum after Camacho and the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office not only received base course material that exceeded the 100 cubic yards approved by the Department of Public Lands under the public benefit requirement of its permit, but the mayor\u2019s office also ordered 7.5 cubic yards of aggregates\u2014parts of which constituted processed material. These aggregates, CMS said, are not included in the public benefit agreement, and all agencies must pay for this material.<\/p>\n

The CMS lawsuit was filed on Oct. 18, 2023, by CMS and their lawyer, Robert Torres.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that, from Feb. 1, 2023, through Sept. 11, 2023, CMS provided the Saipan municipality with a monthly statement of its invoice for the quarry materials supplied to the Saipan municipality. \u201cDespite monthly notices of its invoices, the Saipan municipality failed to pay and continues to fail or refuses to pay CMS…,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

CMS accuses the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office of breach of contract and unjust enrichment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor RB and the Saipan municipality have breached the contract by failing and refusing to pay the amount of $36,126.25, which is equivalent to the value of the quarry materials and for services performed by delivery of these materials to the Saipan municipality\u2019s project sites. CMS has been damaged by Mayor RB and the Saipan municipality\u2019s breach to the extent of at least $36,126.25 as of Sept.11, 2023. CMS has been required to hire an attorney to bring this action for damages and is entitled to recover reasonable attorney\u2019s fees and costs incurred in doing so,\u201d the lawsuit adds.<\/p>\n

It said that Camacho and the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office knew or were aware that CMS was delivering and supplying it with quarry materials that exceeded 100 cubic yards of raw or coral materials.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

File photo shows Attorney General Edward Manibusan.<\/p>\n

-FERDIE DE LA TORRE
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CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan has informed Saipan Mayor Ramon Blas Camacho, who is being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402247","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}