In April 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit submitted two questions about local CNMI law to the Commonwealth Supreme Court in the case of Kabir v. Barcinas.
The case involved a claim by Homayan Kabir, a security guard at Dandan Elementary School, against the Public School System and Jonas Barcinas — the then-principal of Dandan Elementary School — alleging violations of federal and CNMI laws.
In the district court, the CNMI attorney general moved to have the commonwealth government substituted as the defendant in Barcinas’ place pursuant to the Commonwealth Employees Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act of 2006 or CELRTCA. If the AG’s motion was granted, Kabir would likely have been precluded from any recovery due to governmental immunity.
The district court denied the government’s motion, and the government appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
The Ninth Circuit asked the CNMI Supreme Court to answer two technical questions concerning CELRTCA.
The CNMI high court’s opinion can be found on the judiciary’s website in the News Archive section under Kabir v. PSS and Barcinas, 2009 MP 19.
This month, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion after receiving the Supreme Court’s answers.
The court of appeals reversed the district court and sent the case back to the federal trial court in which Kabir will be allowed to challenge the CNMI attorney general’s determination that the government should be substituted as the defendant in the case.
