DISTRICT Court for the NMI Designated Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood, has approved Settlement Fund trustee Joyce C. H. Tang’s request for compensation and reimbursement of expenses.
Joyce Tang
The judge said she finds the request reasonable as she ordered the Settlement Fund to pay the trustee the sum of $41,629.44.
This amount represents 90% of the trustee’s professional fees and all expenses incurred during the months of August 2020 through December 2020 (invoices dated September 2020 to January 2021), Judge Tydingco-Gatewood said.
She also ordered the Settlement Fund to hold in trust to the credit of the trustee the sum of $4,425, which represents the trustee’s professional fees for the same time period.
The Trustee may petition for release of the 10% retainer on a quarterly basis, subject to the court’s satisfaction with the Trustee’s work and any objections to the Trustee’s compensation requests, the judge added.
Judge Tydingco-Gatewood also approved Tang’s petition to release the 10% retainer withheld from her invoices for services rendered during the months of November 2019 through July 2020.
There being no objection to the invoices and the court being satisfied with the trustee’s work, the Settlement Fund was ordered to pay the trustee the additional sum of $11,522.25.
The court appointed Tang, a Guam lawyer, trustee for the Settlement Fund on Sept. 25, 2013. The Fund was created by the federal court as a result of a settlement agreement between the CNMI government and retiree Betty Johnson.
Johnson sued the CNMI government for its failure to make timely and regular payments to the NMI Retirement Fund.
