Trustee directed to present Settlement Fund status update

The Settlement Fund trustee was directed yesterday to present an update on the status of the Fund in mid-September.

U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood directed Joyce C. H. Tang, the Fund trustee representative, to file a status report with the court no later than Sept. 15, 2017.

The judge directed Tang to make the presentation on Sept. 27, 2017, at 9:30am.

Meanwhile, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is automatically substituted as the defendant in Betty Johnson’s class action.

The Settlement Fund has been silent in the past several months.

Last January, Tydingco-Gatewood approved the payment of $36,500.94 to the Settlement Fund trustee for professional services and expenses incurred for a 10-month period in 2016.

In December 2016, the NMI government, the NMI Retirement Fund, and the NMI Settlement Fund jointly submitted in federal court a stipulation regarding the ownership of assets belonging to the Settlement Fund.

According to the stipulation, the U.S. District Court for the NMI has held that the Settlement Fund is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt entity created by the court-approved settlement agreement dated Aug. 6, 2013, in connection with Betty Johnson’s class action lawsuit.

The parties agree that the Settlement Fund is not a pension plan and it does not operate or manage a pension plan.

The assets that were transferred to the Settlement Fund and now owned and controlled solely by the Settlement Fund include the Judicial Building loan note, and the leasehold interest(s) in real property that was transferred from the CNMI Fund to the Settlement Fund (to the extent allowed under CNMI law).

The other assets include all bonds, securities, investments, and cash accounts held in the name of the Settlement Fund, and payments to be made to the Settlement Fund under the settlement agreement.

In 2013 a global settlement agreement was reached in Johnson’s class action against the Retirement Fund and the CNMI government. The deal settles the issue on how the Retirement Fund could collect from the government and eventually pay the retirees and refund the employees’ contributions.

It was reported at that time that the Retirement Fund’s assets were to be depleted in March 2014.