In his order yesterday, Munson said the complaint “fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because Villagomez has failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.”
Attorney Ramon K. Quichocho appeared on behalf of the plaintiff during the hearing on Aug. 6 while Assistant Attorney General David Lochabay represented Fund Administrator Mark Aguon.
Deborah E. Fisher appeared on behalf of the Retirement Fund board.
The case involved Villagomez’s retirement benefits.
For 18 years, he had been a member of the House of Representatives, the Senate and was a Senate legislative assistant.
Villagomez retired on March 28, 2008 and applied for his retirement benefits.
He received notice from Aguon that he was eligible to retire.
But before Villagomez applied for his benefits, the board of advised the Fund to suspend payment of benefits to any member whose employer had not made their contributions.
The CNMI government had not made its employer contributions during Villagomez’s tenure.
Villagomez’s application was denied and he has not received any retirement benefits from the Fund.
He then filed a lawsuit against the CNMI government, the Fund, the board of trustees and the Fund Administrator Aguon.
The defendants filed a motion to dismiss Aguon and the board from the lawsuit.
According to the court, Villagomez concedes that he did not file an administrative appeal as required by regulation and argued that “exhaustion of administrative remedies is futile because his application for benefits was already denied.”
The court said this argument is unconvincing.
Villagomez alleges a constitutional deprivation of property without due process of law.
However, the court said Villagomez has “not been deprived of procedural process until he has exhausted his administrative remedies…. Only then can the court determine whether Villagomez was deprived of adequate process.”
