THE Office of the Attorney General on Wednesday voluntarily dismissed its complaint in Superior Court against CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Julia Victoria I. “Vicky” Benavente over excessive typhoon overtime pay.
According to Chief Solicitor J. Robert Glass Jr., the NMI Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(i) allows the plaintiff to dismiss the case without a court order by filing a notice of dismissal before the opposing party serves either an answer or a motion for summary judgment.
“Neither an answer or a motion for summary judgement has been served in this case. Therefore, the plaintiff moves to voluntarily dismiss this action,” Glass added. He did not explain why the AG’s office was dismissing the lawsuit against the DOL secretary.
Last week, the AG filed a complaint against Benavente and other current and former department heads.
AG Edward Manibusan said he filed the lawsuit, “on behalf of the people of the Commonwealth, who are harmed and have been harmed by the excessive compensation by a Commonwealth government employee who was not entitled to typhoon emergency premium compensation, overtime, or extra pay for work performed during the declared major disaster and state of significant emergency relating to Super Typhoon Yutu, or for work directly involved with typhoon recovery and repair work and providing assistance to those members of the Commonwealth adversely affected by Super Typhoon Yutu.”
According to the AG, Benavente, who was appointed DOL secretary on May 22, 2017, received a total of $36,198.43 in “unlawful typhoon payments.”
