Legal battle that began in 2006 continues

JG Sablan Rock Quarry Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Public Lands over their legal dispute that began in 2006 when DPL terminated JG Sablan’s mining permit.

JG Sablan, through counsel Michael W. Dotts, filed last week in the Superior Court a petition for judicial review of DPL’s order refusing JG Sablan’s request to reconsider the termination of its mining permit.

JG Sablan asked the court to declare DPL’s refusal to reconsider the termination of the permit to be unlawful.

Dotts said that acting DPL secretary Pedro I. Itibus’ order is final and is prejudicial to JG Sablan and constitutes a sanction.

In a letter to Dotts dated May 3, 2012, Itibus informed him that DPL considers JG Sablan’s permit void. The letter was in response to JG Sablan’s motion to amend DPL’s administrative order or, in the alternative, for reconsideration.

Itibus told Dotts that the CNMI courts have upheld the May 3, 2006, notice of termination.

“The fact that the courts invalidated some of the reasons provided does not render the original decision excessive or arbitrary,” Itibus said.

According to Dotts, in JG Sablan’s petition for judicial review, then DPL secretary John DelRosario issued a notice declaring JG Sablan’s mining permit terminated and void.

The permit supposedly allowed the company to mine pozzolan and basalt on the island of Pagan for 20 years.

In response to the notice, JG Sablan asked for an agency hearing, and on Aug. 1, 2006, DPL issued an administrative decision that affirmed all seven grounds in the notice and on that basis declared the permit void.

JG Sablan appealed to the Superior Court.

Dotts said that, on Dec. 31, 2008, the Superior Court granted summary judgment to DPL, but the court struck down three of the seven reasons that DPL had relied on to justify the termination of the permit.

JG Sablan then went to the Supreme Court.

On March 30, 2012, the Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s decision, but struck down an additional ground for termination of the permit.

Dotts said the judicial review of the administrative decision only affirmed two out of the seven grounds supporting termination of the permit: the failure to have a development plan and the failure to pay past due royalties.

A third ground, Dotts said, that JG Sablan had allegedly strayed out of the area covered by the permit, was not decided on by the Supreme Court.

Dotts said that given that majority of the reasons DPL had relied on in 2006 to justify the termination of the permit had been found by judicial review to have been improper, JG Sablan on April 27, 2012 sought reconsideration of the remedy of termination before DPL.

On May 3, 2012, DPL, through Itibus, denied reconsideration.

“The order refusing to reconsider the remedy of termination when the majority of reasons justifying termination had been found improper was arbitrary and capricious and otherwise improper,” the lawyer said.