DLNR directed to remit $30K to counsels for Pellegrino, MRC

Superior Court associate judge David A. Wiseman has ordered the Department of Public Lands and Natural Resources to remit a total of $30,000 to the attorneys for businessman Anthony Pellegrino and his Marine Revitalization Corp.

Wiseman directed DLNR to remit the $10,000 that was appropriated by the Legislature in September 2011 for the payment of judgments to Pellegrino and MRC.

The judge also ordered DLNR to remit the $20,000 that was previously appropriated for the payment of the judgments and ordered paid to Pellegrino and MRC on May 10, 2005.

If these monies are no longer available, Wiseman said that DLNR should account with the court what judgments these monies were applied to and when.

Wiseman held the hearing on Pellegrino and MRC’s motion for an order in aid of judgment last Nov. 17.

Attorney Michael Dotts appeared at the hearing for Pellegrino and MRC, while assistant attorney general David W. Lochabay represented DLNR. Attorney Thomas Clifford appeared for Mobil Oil Marianas Islands, Inc.

Pellegrino established MRC to build the $3.5-million Outer Cove Marina in the mid-1990s. MRC and the government’s dispute began in 2001 after DLNR not only failed to bar commercial vessels from renting slip space at Smiling Cove but also actively solicited commercial lessees.

When the government refused to pay MRC, MRC couldn’t pay Mobil. Mobil sued MRC to enforce MRC’s promise to pay Mobil for the fueling facility at Outer Cove Marina.

In 2005, DLNR agreed to a court judgment ordering it to pay $5.65 million to MRC or Pellegrino. DLNR, however, did not comply with the order, resulting in the court’s three judgments in favor of MRC.

In October 2010, Pellegrinto told the Legislature that the government’s debt to the company has ballooned to $8.5 million.

The government’s debt was reduced to about $5 million after the Supreme Court took away about $3 million in interest. The Supreme Court held that judgments against the CNMI don’t accrue interest.

Dotts told Saipan Tribune yesterday that the Supreme Court held that the courts are powerless to enforcement judgments and ruled that judgments must be paid by legislative appropriation.

“The most recent budget appropriated only $10,000 for the payment of all judgments against the CNMI,” said Dotts in an email.

The lawyer said that MRC applied that it be given that amount since it had been appropriated and the court granted the motion.

“My belief, however, is that the $10,000 is already gone. Once the CNMI doesn’t pay the $10,000 ordered we can find out where it went and how many judgments are awaiting payments by the CNMI and present that information to the court. This is the start of a new process to try to collect for MRC and for others we represent who are owed on judgments,” Dotts said.