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All five judges recuse themselves from handling the lawsuit vs Ada
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Posted on Nov 16 2008
All five Superior Court judges have recused themselves from presiding over the CNMI government’s civil lawsuit against former Commonwealth Development Authority and now Board of Education member Maria Lourdes S. Ada.
The recusal has prompted Superior Court presiding judge Robert C. Naraja to reassign the case to associate judge David A. Wiseman under the rule of necessity.
Naraja, and associate judges Wiseman, Kenneth Govendo, Ramona V. Manglona, and Perry B. Inos all refused to handle the case for various reasons.
In his order issued Thursday, Naraja said that, in light of the Superior Court’s current budget crisis, the appointment of an impartial judge pro tem is not financially possible.
Naraja said the parties have stipulated, under the common Rule of Necessity, that the case will be assigned to Wiseman.
Under the Rule of Necessity, a judge may not decline to hear a case due to personal interest if there is no other judge available to hear the case.
Naraja directed the parties in the case to appear before Wiseman on Dec. 4, 2008.
The CNMI government sued Ada for allegedly violating regulations during her tenure as CDA executive director by having her sick leave converted into vacation time and then later exchanging that unused time for cash, a move that gained her over $59,000.
Ada, through counsel Mark Hanson, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, citing that the allegations are deficient in both substance and form.
According to Hanson, the Attorney General’s Office is inappropriately meddling in the affairs of CDA and that the CNMI does not have standing to bring the lawsuit.
Hanson said the lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to embarrass and humiliate his client for no reasons.
