Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo ruled yesterday in favor of the motion to intervene filed by the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Commonwealth Development Authority, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.
In granting the motion to intervene to the moving parties, the Court expressed its concern that denying intervention may result in more lawsuits but that allowing it may also cause many collateral issues to be raised.
Ultimately, Govendo decided it would be better for the parties to allow the agencies as intervenors.
In an interview with Variety, CPA legal counsel Robert T. Torres said, “CPA is pleased that the Court granted the motion to intervene in order to protect CPA’s interests as an employer and to assist in the resolution of this matter.”
He added, “For CPA the question is whether the Fund can be rehabilitated to solvency, should the parties fashion a progressive and measured plan do so. If the Court determines that the Fund is such a condition that rehabilitation is either impossible or unworkable, then CPA would be concerned with the impact of that determination.”
He also told Variety that they hope the process will end with rehabilitation, so long as the parties commit to the difficult but necessary challenge in that direction.
During the Dec. 19 hearing, Torres told the court, “In an effort to collect, the CPA is being affected when as a contributing agency, it has fully contributed its amount due.”
He also said that CPA should not bear the burden of the central government as a result of it not paying which the agency is being saddled with.
In his declaration, CPA comptroller Derek Sasamoto stated, “Requiring CPA to shoulder the burden of infusing the cash-strapped Fund with resources that may never find their way to the employees CPA serves to protect is of vital concern to the agency.”
He also said that the Fund’s insistence on commandeering so significant a share of CPA’s budget places CPA’s ability to fulfill its statutory mission in jeopardy.
The Fund’s unfunded liability continued to increase as it continues to fail to collect judgment against the central government.
Failure to collect judgment also led to the increase in employer contribution rate which is by far the highest in Micronesia.
Due to this new employer contribution rate, CPA is anticipating it would not meet its bond indenture requirements as it would be saddled with over $1 million in additional costs to the agency for both port and airport operations.
Even CDA reported an $85,000 impact to the agency’s operations this fiscal year.
The day before the Dec. 19 hearing, the government represented by Assistant Attorney General Michael Stanker filed an opposition to CPA’s motion.
Stanker said, “CPA fails to satisfy its burden of proof by failing to raise adequate legal or factual grounds to support this attempted intervention.”
For Stanker, CPA’s motion is not timely because it sought to join the proceedings at a late stage and it weighed heavily against the applicant where the trial court had substantially engaged the issues in a case.
