DPL found liable to pay $2.1M, not $1.8M, to heirs

The Superior Court has found that the Department of Public Lands, as successor of the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority, is liable to pay $2.1 million to the heirs of Rita Rogolifoi—not $1.8 million as the court had earlier determined.

In an amended order issued Thursday, Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja ruled that the Rogolifoi heirs should be given a total of $2,122,476.70 as compensation for the government’s taking of two parcels of two lands in As Mahetog in 1976 and 1992.

For the 1976 taking of land, Naraja determined that a prejudgment interest rate of 7.724 percent should be applied, for a final award amount of $112,241.98.

For the 1992 taking of land, the judge said a prejudgment interest of 6.991 percent should be applied, for a final award amount of $2,010,234.72.

In the same decision, Naraja ordered DPL to remit to the court a total of $567,543.47 in rental payments collected from respective lessees of the lands under the lease agreements with the former MPLA.

Naraja determined that as of March 31, 2009, MPLA collected $220,867.61 in rent under the original lease with the former Micronesian Telecommunication Corp. (now PTI).

He also found that as of March 31, 2009, MPLA collected $216,148.36 and $130,527.50 representing rent collected under the original lease with Saipan Ice Inc. and Commercial Trading of Saipan respectively.

Naraja had originally determined in January 2009 that DPL was liable to pay the Rogolifoi heirs $1.8 million.

In his amended order Thursday, Narja pointed out that at a status conference held on Feb. 11, 2009, the Rogolifois responded to the issue of mutual mistake.

The Rogolifois argued that the stipulated property values were negotiated between their counsel, Brien Sers Nicholas, and assistant attorney general Anthony Welch.

Furthermore, Naraja said, the Rogolofois argued that they made no mistake in stipulating to those values, and if there was a mistake, it was only on the part of Welch.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the judge said, he finds that even if Welch made a unilateral mistake when he stipulated to the property, “a unilateral mistake does not force this court to rescind the stipulations.”

“Even in light of the significantly lower land values today, it is not a windfall to receive what a reasonably prudent person could have generated through moderately conservative investments if the Commonwealth would have made prompt payment for the land taking,” he said.

Naraja ordered MPLA to negotiate with the Rogolifois as to a land exchange to resolve the remaining issue of the encroached area.

According to court records, MPLA’s board of directors sued the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the heirs of Rita Rogolifoi in 2005.

The MPLA board accused the Division of Land Registration and Survey director of conducting arbitrary land surveys that benefited the heirs of Rogolifoi to public land.

But the heirs of Rogolifoi filed a counter-claim against MPLA. The heirs claimed that over 1,000 square meters of their 4.4 hectares were used by the government for the road.