“The Roe/Doe plaintiffs may once again proceed with this litigation before the U.S. District Court on Saipan,” said attorney Bruce L. Jorgensen who is representing plaintiffs known only as “Jane Roe” and “John Doe.”
Jorgensen said that “in an apparent design to preclude the U.S. District Court from acting further [on the lawsuit], the private counsel retained by the Fund (in apparent tandem with the Fund’s in-house counsel) initiated on the Fund’s behalf an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit….”
The Ninth Circuit has ruled that the opening brief and excerpts of record are due on Aug. 31, 2010, while the answering brief is due on Sept. 30, 2010, and the optional reply brief is due within 14 days after service of the answering brief.
Jorgensen said: “The Roe/Doe claims essentially seek to have the U.S. [district] court invoke its equitable powers, e.g. to create a U.S. receivership (or similar entity) tasked with conserving the Fund and its assets, while initiating immediate steps to enforce and collect upon the not-a-cent-paid-to-date $231 million judgment against the CNMI left for over a year now.”
If the receivership is granted by the federal court, Jorgensen said, “there will be no need for a CNMI bond (nor will there be threat of the CNMI using or encumbering Fund assets to collateralize or get the bond…or danger of the CNMI then ‘borrowing’ or diverting or siphoning from the Fund any bond proceeds obtained).”
Jorgensen sued the CNMI government in June 2009, representing two of the Fund’s members.
