JUDGE Pro Tempore Timothy Bellas has denied the request to intervene and motion for a temporary restraining order and other relief sought by Sen. Paul A. Manglona and taxpayer Carmen Patricia Deleon Guerrero in the lawsuit filed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres against the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations.
Manglona and Deleon Guerrero, who represent themselves, also wanted the court to declare the Senate impeachment rules null and void.
In a four-page order, Judge Bellas stated that “the request for injunctive relief [is] against the Senate and Senate President [Jude U. Hofschneider] who are not parties to this action, and therefore such relief is beyond the court’s jurisdiction in this matter.”
The judge added, “No colorable transactional nexus was alleged in the motions between the claims or defenses in the above-captioned matter and the allegations of the claims in the motions; and to allow intervention based on the motions would unnecessarily delay the underlying action for the purpose of litigating extraneous unrelated claims.”
Judge Bellas said the motions filed by Manglona and Deleon Guerrero “do not meet the requirements of permissive intervention and intervention of right.”
Therefore, the judge said, “the motion to shorten time is moot…and the motion for temporary restraining order is moot.”
However, the judge said, “The movants or any other party may request the scheduling of an oral hearing within five days from entry of the orders.”
The judge said, “Failure to request such oral argument within that period shall convert the tentative orders to final orders….”
In his order, Judge Bellas noted that Manglona and Deleon Guerrero wanted the court to “enjoin the Senate and its President, Jude U. Hofschneider, from proceeding with the implementation of impeachment trial rules for the impeachment trial of Governor Ralph DLG Torres.”
In support of their motion to intervene and related motions, the movants “cite Rule 24 of the CNMI Rule of Civil Procedure which governs intervention of a party as either a permissive right to intervene or as a matter of right,” the judge said.
“Although the motions reiterate the language of NMI R. Civ. P. 24, they do not contain any factual analysis that supports intervention,” he added.
For example, there is no statute cited which authorizes either a “conditional” or “unconditional” right to intervene, the judge said.
One of the movants is a member of the CNMI Senate, “and, as such, the motions seem to suggest that the basis of the intervention is based on the language in Rule 24(b)(2),” Judge Bellas said.
“However, aside from meeting the requirement that one of the movants is a CNMI government officer, there is nothing in the motions to indicate that either the Governor’s claim or the House Committee’s defense is based on a statute administered by the movant. Nor is there any specification in the motions that the underlying action involves any regulation, order, requirement or agreement that is related to a statute or executive order in the underlying action,” the judge said.
Finally, “although the court is mindful that the movants are pro se litigants and, therefore, the court overlooks some stylistic deficiencies, it cannot overlook deficiencies in the requirements contained in Rule 24 which the movants rely on.”
According to Judge Bellas, the final sentence of Rule 24 states: “The motion must state the grounds for intervention and be accompanied by a pleading that sets out the claim or defense for which intervention is sought.”
He said the motions before the court “do not meet this requirement for intervention, as they contain no separate pleading which sets out the claim(s) or defense(s) that is/are involved in the underlying action.”
Torres, a Republican governor, was found by the Democrat-led House JGO committee in contempt of a legislative subpoena for refusing to appear before the panel, which was investigating his public expenditures.
In his lawsuit, Torres has asked the court to find the subpoena issued by the legislative committee invalid and unlawful.
On Jan. 12, 2022, Torres was impeached by the House of Representatives by a vote of 15 to 4 with 1 abstention, on allegations of felonies of theft, corruption and neglect of duty. He has denied the charges.
At least six of the nine senators must vote to convict in order to remove him from office.
Timothy Bellas
