The Attorney General’s Office asked the court to dismiss Ludwick’s case saying it lacks standings.
Ludwick’s civil action 10-0041A is a complaint for declaratory judgment based on Superior Court Judge Kenneth L. Govendo’s judgment for damages and order in favor of the Retirement Fund.
Govendo ruled that the Retirement Fund was owed over $231 million in unpaid contributions as of April 2009 and that the CNMI government should remit at least 16 percent in employment contributions to the pension agency every payroll.
Ludwick who arrived in the NMI in 1963 to teach high school students argued he has legal standing to push for his case.
“I and the other citizens, residents, and taxpayers cannot and must not wait until a reticent CNMI executive branch takes action to remove an unconstitutional law, 1 CMC, Section 7207,” he said in a written statement to Naraja.
1 CMC, Section 7207 states: “Except for funds appropriated for settlements and awards, no court may require the disbursement of funds from the Commonwealth Treasury or order reprogramming of funds in order to provide for such disbursement. Any final judgment of a court shall be paid only pursuant to an item of appropriations for settlements and awards.”
In other words, Ludwick said, the court may rule that a litigant is entitled to a cash award from the government, but the litigant cannot be paid until the Legislature appropriates the money.
“Nowhere do the attorney general’s lawyers attack my complaint as not having merit,” he told Naraja. “By this very omission, one must conclude that the [AGO] recognizes that the complaint does have merit. The decision relative to my standing is inherently linked to the merit of the question posed in the complaint.”
The retired teacher said he was astounded to learn that the AGO wanted his case dismissed.
“Now, while I am not a lawyer, I can read the CNMI Constitution and these government lawyers are wrong under the law. Article X, Section 9 was included in the CNMI Constitution specifically to address the possibility that government officials or instrumentalities might breach their fiduciary duties relating to the expenditure of public funds for the payment of CNMI debts,” he said.
“Article X, section 9 permits me to sue, seek equitable/injunctive relief, and necessarily act, in order and design to protect myself and the CNMI public-at-large from incompetent, unlawful, or impermissible fiduciary government conduct. This is why the constitution includes the language: ‘Section 9: Taxpayer’s Right of Action. A taxpayer may bring an action against the government or one of its instrumentalities in order to enjoin the expenditure of public funds for other than public purposes or for a breach of fiduciary duty. The court shall award costs and attorney fees to any person who prevails in such an action in a reasonable amount relative to the public benefit of the suit,’ ” he added.
The Retirement Fund was also sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. In that lawsuit, a group of retirees is asking the federal court to place the pension agency under federal receivership to insulate it from political interference.
A board of trustees whose members are appointed by the governor governs the Fund.
