FORMER Department of Public Works Public Information Officer Felipe Q. Atalig has asked the Superior Court to impose a Rule 11 sanction against the Department of Public Works.
Atalig also asked the court to deny DPW’s motion to dismiss his petition for a judicial review of DPW’s termination of his employment.
Atalig represents himself in the lawsuit.
According to Rule 11, Atalig said, “when an attorney (or an unrepresented party) submits a complaint, defense, memorandum of law, or other written submission to the court he is certifying that the document (i) is not being submitted for an improper purpose such as to harass someone; (ii) the legal arguments have a basis under existing law or there is a good-faith basis to change the law or create new law; (iii) the facts are supported by evidence or will be supported by evidence; and (iv) denials of any facts are supported by evidence or will be supported by evidence.”
Rule 11 also provides that if the rule is violated, a court may impose a punishment on any attorney, law firm or party responsible for the violation, Atalig said.
“The punishment could include, among other things, fines paid to the court, compensating the other party, and paying another party’s attorneys’ fees,” he added.
“DPW knew or should have known about the claim-processing issue and completely failed to assert such a claim in its first motion to dismiss. Knowing full well that DPW negligently failed to include the claim processing issue in its initial motion to dismiss, DPW knew that the only way to get a second bite at the apple was to assert that its second successive motion to dismiss was now being made pursuant to NMI R. P. Admin. App. 2(g)(2)…. [But] the Northern Mariana Islands Rules of Procedure for Administrative Appeals do not provide such explicit authority to file a successive motion to dismiss,” Atalig said.
He said “(1) the filing of the successive motion to dismiss is being made for an improper purpose such as to harass Petitioner; (2) that the legal arguments for a motion to dismiss have no basis under existing law; (3) that DPW has waived its right to file successive motion to dismiss based on claim processing issue; (4) the Rules prohibit the filing of successive motion to dismiss in this case; and (5) that the Court should impose a Rule 11 sanction against DPW the moving party.”
DPW Secretary James Ada terminated the 83-year-old Atalig in March 2018 for alleged sexual harassment.
Atalig said he merely put his hand into an engineer’s pocket to “demonstrate a point” during an argument.
But the engineer alleged that Atalig touched him inappropriately.
In his petition for judicial review, Atalig said his action “might have warranted a verbal reprimand,” but it was used “as pretext for his termination.”
He said “the real reason for his termination was an ongoing power struggle” between him and one of DPW’s directors.
Atalig is a former member of the Marianas District Legislature and the Congress of Micronesia and was a delegate to the NMI’s first constitutional convention in 1976.
Felipe Q. Atalig
