Lizama grants bank’s request for NMI-wide pool of jurors

The Superior Court has granted Bank of Guam’s request for a CNMI-wide pool of jurors in its lawsuit against a Rota businessman and his company over their ownership dispute on three dump trucks.

Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama, however, ordered BoG to pay the additional costs of the selection for the Commonwealth-wide jurors.

“In other words, plaintiff (BoG) will pay the costs of transporting jurors between the islands,” Lizama said.

The judge said defendants Fidel Mendiola Jr. and D&J Equipment Rental, having requested a jury trial, will be responsible for the standard costs associated with a jury trial.

The standard costs are those incurred by the seating of a local (one-island) jury, Lizama explained.

The judge requested the counsel for all parties in the lawsuit to agree as to the number of jurors to be selected from each island and or the manner by the jurors will be selected.

“In a civil case involving a matter of law, both litigants have the right to increase the likelihood of an impartial decision by requesting a jury trial,” he noted.

The party who requests to exercise this right, Lizama said, is the party who pays for the expenses of a jury trial.

Court records show that in Dec. 2003, BoG sued D&J, Fidel Mendiola Jr., his cousin former House Vice Speaker Alejo Mendiola Jr., for allegedly refusing to turn over to the bank three dump trucks despite a court order. The bank sued them for conversion and for unjust enrichment.

In the amended complaint, Alejo Mendiola Jr. was not included as co-defendant.

The complaint said that in Septemeber 2002 the bank sued Western Equipment Inc. to recover on a delinquent loan.

The complaint said that in Oct. 2002, the Superior Court issued an order wherein it was stated that WEI “is presently in default” on the loan it had with BOG.

He said that on Dec. 10, 2002 Katherine Muna of BoG learned that three 1989 Isuzu dump trucks belonging to WEI were located on the property of Alejo Mendiola Jr. in Rota.

On Jan. 15, 2003, BOG personnel attempted to take possession of the trucks using the court order, but were rebutted by D&J Equipment in whose name the registrations of the trucks had been changed on Jan. 14, 2003, the complaint said.

BoG, through counsel Robert T. Torres, filed a motion to avoid the seating of a jury of on Rota residents.

Torres argued that failure to include residents from other islands in the jury pool would result in an unconstitutional under-representation of these residents.

But Lizama said because the distinction between different groups of islanders in the Commonwealth is one of geography and not race, exclusion of the residents of one island does not violate the Fifth Amendment right to due process.

Thus, Lizama said, the under-representation of residents from islands other than Rota is insufficient to draw jurors from all the islands.

The judge said because it is composed of several sparsely populated islands, CNMI poses an even greater problem to non-local litigants than would a state court.

The jury selection rules for the U.S. District Court for the NMI address this problem by drawing from residents of Tinian, Saipan, Rota and even the Northern Islands.

“Contrarily, with respect to Superior Court trials, ‘the general practice within the Commonwealth is to select jurors from Saipan for jury trials held on Saipan, from Rota for jury trials on Rota, and from Tinian for jury trials held on Tinian,’” Lizama said.

Lizama said while defendants have a right to a jury trial, they don’t have the right to be tried by a particular group of people—Rota residents.

Court records also show that in December 2005, Alejo Mendiola Jr. filed a $3 million lawsuit against BoG and its Rota branch manager Katherine B. Muna for malicious prosecution.

Mendiola, through counsel William F. Fitzgerald, said by filing the original complaint, BoG and Muna, through their actions, maliciously allowed two local newspapers to obtain copies of the original complaint, which resulted in the news articles.

Fitzgerald said that on Jan. 2, 2004, BoG filed its first amended complaint to recover possession of vehicles, for injunctive relief and for money damages.

All the references made to Alejo Mendiola Jr. in the original complaint filed through counsel Gregory Koebel were completely removed and not found in the first amended complaint, the lawyer noted.

Fitzgerald said that on the same day, the bank filed contemporaneously with the first amended complaint a document entitled “dismissal of Alejo Mendiola Jr.”

This document states that the bank voluntarily dismisses Alejo Mendiola Jr. from this action, he said.