Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, in his official capacity, responded through Assistant Attorney General Maeghan Hassel-Shearer, saying there are outstanding motions before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit “that directly affect this case.”
Therefore, Hassel-Shearer argued, “the Ninth Circuit must be allowed to render a decision on the [Retirement Fund] board’s immunity prior to this matter proceeding in district court.”
She also pointed out that “the mischaracterized footnote that the plaintiff cites refers not to the enforceability of a judgment against the government but rather to the ability of the lower court to use government land to pay the Retirement Fund once a final judgment has been rendered.”
In his response, Bruce L. Jorgensen, the lawyer representing “Jane Roe” and “John Doe,” said: “Nowhere within the opposition has Fund counsel disputed the recognition that in the wake of hundreds of thousands of Fund dollars paid in fees to private counsel since the inception of this lawsuit of June 26, 2009, there has transpired collection by these and in-house Fund counsel of not one penny of the underlying $230 million plus judgment issued nearly 24 months ago…while, simultaneously, the CNMI flouts CNMI Superior Court orders, as the Fund accelerates toward fiscal chaos.”
Jorgensen is proposing a status conference on June 16, 2011 in federal court.
Through Jorgensen, the anonymous retirees sued Fitial and officials of the Retirement Fund in their official capacities, to place the pension agency under federal receivership.
