Previous Story
‘Fitial, NMI govt not interested in mediation in Jorgensen’s suit’
|
Posted on Apr 08 2012
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the CNMI government are not interested in mediation in connection with the two unnamed retirees’ lawsuit against them and the NMI Retirement Fund.
Gilbert Birnbrich, chief of the Office of the Attorney General’s Civil Division, filed the mediation statement in the U.S. District Court for the NMI on Thursday on behalf of Fitial, CNMI government, Department of Finance, and acting Finance secretary Robert Shrack.
The mediation statement was pursuant to U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood’s order at the conclusion of a telephonic conference call on March 29.
According to Birnbrich, the government does not believe that mediation is appropriate because it believes that the plaintiffs’ claims have not merit.
Birnbrich said the government also believes that mediation would be duplicative of proceedings in the Fund’s lawsuit against the government in the Superior Court.
With respect to the issue of the federal court’s jurisdiction over the unnamed retirees’ lawsuit, Birnbrich said the CNMI government has not been served with unnamed retirees’ filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
He said the lack of service to the government was raised during the March 29, 2012, telephonic conference.
Birnbrich said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Bruce Jorgensen, promised to serve the documents, but as of this time he has not done so.
Since the plaintiffs have failed to provide the government with the required documents, Birnbrich said the government is unable to form a position whether the federal court possesses jurisdiction over the case.
He said the government, however, has no independent objection to the federal court’s exercise of jurisdiction.
Jorgensen, on behalf of two unnamed retirees, filed the lawsuit against Fitial and the Fund over alleged non-payment of their retirement benefits.
