What If The Government Gives A Takings Party, But Doesn't Show Up? (Northern Marianas)
We love Leo Rosten's classic definition of chutzpah: "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan." Mr. Rosten's dictum stretches around the world -- apparently even into its remote corners such as the Northern Marianas Islands.
Check out CNMI v. Lot No 281-5 R/W, No. 2013-SCC-0006 (Dec. 28, 2016), for the exemplar. In that case, the CNMI government took private property belonging to Ms. Quitugua. Not by regulating it (a favorite topic of this blog), but by "straight condemnation." That is, the CNMI exercised the power of eminent domain to build a road. Not great for the owner, but she apparently didn't object and indeed stipulated to a final judgment which granted the CNMI fee simple title, and gave her a judgment of $77,137 plus interest for just compensation. So far, so good.
At that point, the CNMI apparently left the party. For twenty years.
It didn't pay the judgment, despite the owner "repeatedly mov{ing} for an order in aid of judgment." Finally, decades later, the owner and the court had enough: the court issued an order in aid of judgment in which it restored fee simple title to the owner and hit the condemnor with interest. And the court also issued a writ of execution, ordering the local branches of the banks in which the CNMI government kept its cash to deliver "all monies and proceeds" to the property owner's lawyer to satisfy the judgment.
Read more: http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/18840/CNMI-Government-Takes-House-Lot-from-Owner-Refuses-to-Pay.aspx
