Land compensation claimant sues CNMI, Brown, others in fed court

After scoring victory at the CNMI Superior Court, a former wetland owner filed with Saipan’s federal court a civil action that seeks multi-million-dollar damages against Attorney General Pamela Brown, Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig and other entities over the withholding of payment on her land compensation claim.

Rosario DLG. Kumagai sued Brown and Atalig in their official and personal capacities. She also sued the CNMI government, the Commonwealth Development Authority and its executive director, Maria Lourdes Seman Ada, and the Bank of Guam, the trustee of the CNMI government’s land compensation fund.

In a 23-page complaint filed Tuesday, Kumagai’s attorney, Brien Sers Nicholas, cited 11 causes of action against the defendants, with each cause of action seeking general damages of $5 million plus costs incidental to the filing of the complaint, while some of the causes of action sought unspecified punitive damages against the defendants.

Sers Nicholas accused all the defendants of violating his client’s due process and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

He said the defendants withheld the payment of Kumagai’s land compensation claim despite knowing that other individuals in the same situation have been paid their land compensation claims without interferences or delays.

Those claimants included Teresita A. DeLeon Guerrero and Ana DLG. Gillespie, both of whom received nearly $160,000; Nicolas C. Sablan and Lucy Ann T. Sablan, $over $1.98 million; and Antonio B. Cabrera, over $2.76 million.

These claimants allegedly received the payments earlier this year before the CNMI government sued Kumagai before the CNMI court, while another claimant, Catherine Rose U. Sheu, allegedly received her claim for compensation amounting to $107,101.28 sometime in October this year.

Kumagai used to own a wetland property that the CNMI government took for the public purpose of protecting wetlands and endangered species. Then Gov. Lorenzo I. DeLeon Guerrero had certified the taking of Kumagai’s property for public purpose on Nov. 16, 1993.

The MPLA authorized the payment of some $159,408.19 to Kumagai on May 5, 2005, and forwarded the settlement agreement to Finance Secretary Atalig for concurrence. On May 9, 2005, however, Deputy AG Clyde Lemons Jr. wrote to Atalig instructing the secretary not to process Kumagai’s claim.

But on Aug. 8, 2005, Atalig gave his concurrence and forwarded the document to the MPLA, which then forwarded the same to the CDA. The following day, the CDA transmitted the documents to the Bank of Guam for the release of monies to Kumagai, but Sers Nicholas said Brown instructed the CDA to stop processing the claim. Sers Nicholas said Brown’s office and the CDA entered into a written agreement that effectively stopped the processing of Kumagai’s claim.

Later, the CNMI government, through Brown, sued the MPLA, Kumagai and another former wetland owner before the CNMI trial court to prevent the drawdown of land compensation claims.

“Defendants CNMI and Brown’s willful and intentional filing of the MPLA lawsuit…was done for the ulterior motives or purposes of continuing to deprive Kumagai of her rights [to receive just compensation for the government’s land taking],” Sers Nicholas said.

He accused Brown and the CNMI government of abuse of process and malicious prosecution, alleging that the lawsuit filed by those defendants against Kumagai was frivolous. The CNMI court had dismissed the suit against Kumagai, directing the CDA last Sept. 27 to proceed with the disbursement of nearly $160,000 in land compensation claim.

Sers Nicholas also accused the CNMI government of breaching its duty to deal with Kumagai fairly and in good faith when it refused to pay her land compensation despite an earlier settlement agreement between her and the Commonwealth Health Center, which provided for the release of the remaining funds from her land compensation claim minus nearly her $80,000 debt to the hospital for unpaid bills. Kumagai has been a dialysis patient.

The attorney also said the Bank of Guam breached its fiduciary duty to Kumagai, a beneficiary of the government’s land compensation fund.