Man who sued govt over crash directed to file new suit

The Superior Court has ruled that a man who failed to exhaust his administrative remedies before suing the CNMI government over his injuries and damage to his car in a vehicular accident in 2014 must file a new lawsuit instead of amending his complaint.

In his order on Monday, Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho ruled that a claimant must exhaust his administrative remedies before filing a Government Liability Act lawsuit against the CNMI government.

In this case, Camacho said, Lars Indalecio Palacios filed the lawsuit against the government even before exhausting his administrative remedies, making his complaint premature.

Because Palacios cannot cure his failure to exhaust his administrative remedies by amending his complaint, his motion to amend must be denied as futile, the judge said, and Palacios must file a new lawsuit.

Palacios filed the lawsuit against John San Nicolas in 2015 over a vehicular accident that happened along Chalan Pale Arnold Road on May 27, 2014.

According to the lawsuit, Palacios, who is a government employee, was traveling south on the inner lane of Chalan Pale Arnold and was turning left to the Commonwealth Health Center when San Nicolas, who was driving a government vehicle, hit Palacios’ vehicle.

Palacios sued San Nicolas for reckless, careless, and negligent driving.

In January 2018, the court granted the CNMI government’s petition to substitute San Nicolas as a defendant in the case, asserting he was acting within the scope of his job at the time of the incident.

In September 2018, the court dismissed Palacios’ lawsuit without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction because he failed to provide a sum with his notice of claim as required by the Government Liability Act.

Palacios then submitted a notice of claim to the Office of the Attorney General, indicating a sum for monetary damages. Ninety days have passed since the OAG received the notice of claim but Palacios has not received any response.

Palacios now wants to cure his original complaint by requesting the court to allow him to amend his lawsuit.

The government moved to strike the motion to amend as immaterial because Palacios cannot cure his original complaint through an amendment but must file a new suit.

The hearing on the motion was held last Jan. 29. Matthew Holley argued as counsel for Palacios. OAG Civil Division chief Christopher Timmons argued for the government.

In his order Monday denying Palacios’ motion to amend his complaint, Camacho found that federal case law on the issue to be persuasive.

Camacho said in this case, the court dismissed Palacios’ complaint for lack of jurisdiction because he did not provide a sum with his notice to claim.

Camacho said that, pursuant to the general rule stated in the federal case law, Palacios needed to have exhausted his administrative remedies before filing his lawsuit.

The judge said Palacios’ failure to exhaust his administrative remedies cannot be cured by amending the complaint.