Manglona: Jorgensen should be commended

Bruce Jorgensen, the original lawyer of Betty Johnson, should be commended for taking the risk as the singular attorney in the CNMI who litigated the novel and difficult NMI Retirement Fund issues, according to Sen. Paul A. Manglona.

In an affidavit he issued on Nov. 22, 2013, that Jorgensen attached to his petition for attorney’s fees and costs, Manglona said the results obtained by virtue of Jorgensen’s sole willingness to undertake the Fund litigation have been exceptional to the benefit of thousands of Fund beneficiaries and the CNMI public.

Manglona said that between October 1986 and February 1988, Jorgensen was employed by the CNMI on Rota as legal counsel to his father, Prudencio T. Manglona, who was then the mayor of the island.

Manglona cited that for a span of three months lapsing in August 1986, a contractual agreement was effected pursuant to which Jorgensen agreed to provide legal services to him in his official Senate capacity.

Manglona said that Jorgensen provided those services, on a part-time basis, as a sole-source independent contractor exempted from both standing and benefits of a CNMI full-time or civil service employee.

The senator said he was astonished to learn that CNMI officials have submitted pleadings claiming that Jorgensen, by virtue of their prior contractual agreement, is and has been a so-called “inactive” member of the Retirement Fund.

Manglona pointed out that their prior contractual agreement excluded Jorgensen from being a Fund member and thereby precluded him from receiving Fund benefits.

“Likewise, I was astonished to learn that Fund officials reputedly had placed and carried Mr. Jorgensen’s name on the Fund’s books, either recently or previously, as a supposedly ‘inactive’ Fund member, when neither I nor Mr. Jorgensen had until recently been apprised of this contention,” he added.

Manglona said the mere fact that Jorgensen’s name being on a list generated by CNMI or Fund official should not make him a Fund member or a class member in the Fund litigation.

“I do not believe that Mr. Jorgensen is eligible for any Fund benefits, regardless of Mr. Jorgensen’s age, given that he received short-term contract payments from the CNMI for less than what I understand to be the requisite three-year durational minimum,” he said.

Manglona noted that it is common knowledge within the CNMI that at the outset of the Fund litigation more than four years ago, and for years afterwards, none of the many CNMI-situated lawyers expressed a willingness to litigate the matter on behalf of Fund retiree-beneficiaries.

“Mr. Jorgensen was the singular attorney then willing to expend the time, effort, labor, and costs necessary to skillfully litigate the novel and difficult legal issues necessitated not only by pertinent Fund issues then at hand but, equally important, the foreknowledge and recognition four years ago that, even then, time was of utmost essence given the Fund’s perilous fiscal condition,” he said.

Manglona’s affidavit was among the exhibits Jorgensen submitted in federal court last week to support his petition for attorney’s fees and costs.

According to the Office of the Attorney General, Jorgensen is potentially a Fund plan member and thus may be barred from being class counsel in Johnson’s suit.

Former Fund administrator Lillian M. Pangelinan disclosed in her declaration that as an employee of the Legislative Bureau, Jorgensen began contributing to the Fund in January 1996 up until August 1996.

Since then, Pangelinan said, Jorgensen’s membership status has been—and currently is—“inactive.”

Jorgensen is seeking at least $18.6 million in attorney’s fees and costs. The OAG strongly opposed the petition, describing it as “excessive and outrageous.”