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Munson insists only person with full settlement authority allowed to attend
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Posted on Sep 15 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
U.S. District Court for the NMI senior judge Alex R. Munson has stood pat on his earlier decision that a person with authority to recommend any settlement reached by the parties to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation must be present at the settlement conference in businessman John K. Baldwin’s federal tax refund lawsuit against the United States of America.
Munson denied the U.S. government’s emergency motion to excuse the government from the requirement that person with full settlement authority attend the settlement conference in Baldwin’s lawsuit.
Munson said the emergency motion seeks reconsideration of his Sept. 9, 2011 order that denied such request.
“However, it does not point to any new evidence, change in law, or clear error that would warrant reconsideration. Rather, it repeats arguments the court has already considered and rejected,” the judge said.
U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division’s trial attorney Lauren M. Castaldi stated in the emergency motion that due to the amount at issue in Baldwin’s suit, “settlement proposals may involve a concession of more than $2 million.”
Castaldi asked the court to allow him and trial counsel for the U.S. Jeremy Hendon to personally appear at the settlement conference and Deborah Meland, the chief of the Tax Division’s Office of Review, will be available by phone. Castaldi stated, among other things, that only by centralizing decision-making in these cases, can the Internal Revenue Service and the DOJ hope to be able to treat all taxpayers similarly, so that the burdens of government are fairly shared by all.
The settlement conference in Baldwin’s suit is currently scheduled for Oct. 17, 2011 in Idaho before Munson.
In his Sept. 9 order, Munson said in 29 years of facilitating settlement negotiations, he has never brought about a settlement agreement without having present on each side a person with full authority to reflect such an agreement.
