Guam judges for Malite case

Three Guam justices will be deciding on the petition filed by the Malite estate asking the CNMI Supreme Court to enforce the decision of the Marianas Public Lands Authority to pay the family some $3.45 million in land compensation.

This came after all the CNMI Supreme Court justices—chief justice Miguel Demapan and justices Alexandro C. Castro and John Manglona—recused themselves from the case for undisclosed reasons.

Demapan is the brother of MPLA board chair Ana Demapan-Castro.

In light of the CNMI justices’ recusal and pursuant to an April 18, 2005 order appointing Guam Supreme Court’s F. Philip Carbullido as acting chief justice pro tempore in the case, Carbullido named associate justices Frances Tydingco-Gatewood and Robert J. Torres as justices pro tempore in the proceeding.

“These appointments shall remain in effect until the disposition of this matter,” Carbullido said in a May 6, 2005 order.

Attorney Antonio Atalig, counsel for the Malite estate, petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus that would reverse a Superior Court decision preventing the disbursement of the $3.45-million land compensation to the family.

Superior Court judge Juan T. Lizama earlier denied the request of the estate—together with the MPLA, its board, and commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero—to dismiss Brown’s lawsuit that prevented the disbursement of the land compensation to the Malite heirs.

Lizama had ruled that Brown’s legitimacy as attorney general is not relevant to the suit, declaring that the Attorney General’s Office could continue to function and institute civil and criminal cases regardless of questions as to its head’s legitimacy. He had also declared that the estate and the MPLA defendants had failed to prove that Brown has been holding the attorney general post unlawfully.

In the petition, Atalig said the Superior Court erred in its determination favoring Brown’s standing to file the lawsuit.

“The Malite’s have suffered and waited too long to obtain their just compensation from the government. It is about time that this land compensation claim be brought to a close,” Atalig said. He said that the estate would suffer irreparable harm if the Supreme Court does not grant the mandamus petition, as the government’s land compensation continues to be depleted by other claims.

Atalig insisted that Brown has no standing to file the lawsuit at the Superior Court, laying out new arguments assailing Brown’s legitimacy. He maintained that Brown’s Nov. 17, 2003 confirmation by the Senate was invalid, saying that two senators who allegedly participated in the voting had not officially assumed their posts yet.