The Guam Waterworks Authority can’t ignore its responsibility to pay landowners for the use of ancestral land that the Northern District Wastewater Treatment Plant sits on, attorneys for Core Tech International argue.
Core Tech does not want the ongoing $220 million lawsuit over the Dededo land to be appealed to the Supreme Court of Guam.
“GWA would have the People of Guam accept that whenever a public entity breaks the law, it can ask the Court to merely overlook its misdeeds in the name of the ‘public interest’. All private landowners would be in jeopardy,” according to documents filed before the court this week.
Core Tech, through its attorneys, is asking the court to deny GWA’s request for appeal.
Appealing the ongoing lawsuit before it moves to trial in the Superior Court would only take up more of the court’s time, and would not protect GWA from any injury, documents state.
‘Potential catastrophe’
GWA, which has operated the treatment plant since 1997, wants the Guam Supreme Court to reverse decisions made by Superior Court of Guam Judge Elyze Iriarte that favor Core Tech’s claim to the treatment plant land.
The waterworks authority filed a request for interlocutory appeal to the appeals court earlier this month.
GWA General Manager Miguel Bordallo has stated that there would be major harm to ratepayers, the waterworks authority, and even the Department of Defense’s mission on Guam if Core Tech is found to be the rightful owner of the treatment plant land, or if GWA has to pay out the $220 million in damages Core Tech is seeking.
GWA attorneys referred to the possibility of Core Tech’s victory as a “potential catastrophe.”
But Core Tech attorney Vanessa Williams on Wednesday told the Pacific Daily News that the Consolidated Commission on Utilities, GWA, and the Legislature are “trying to incite a public panic” over the possibility that GWA could be removed from the treatment plant property.
“That’s not possible. The government can take any property they want at any time through eminent domain,” Williams said.
Documents filed Wednesday argue that GWA has already taken the property the plant sits on, and there is no risk of that being undone.
“To begin with, the remedy for public expropriation of property is just compensation, not possession,” documents state.
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‘Failed to plan’
Core Tech, which owns certificates of title for the property and is seeking $220 million in a lawsuit over inverse condemnation, wants the lawsuit to proceed to trial before Iriarte.
At issue is whether GWA properly completed a survey map for the treatment plant land, as required by a 1997 deed for the property.
Iriarte found that GWA did not, and because of that, the land reverted to GovGuam’s ownership in 2009.
Whether GovGuam owned the Dededo land, and could therefore legally transfer it back to the estate of ancestral landowner Jose Martinez Torres in 2006, is one of the main contentions in the case.
The Torres estate sold the property, and it ultimately landed in the hands of Core Tech in 2015, for $178 million.
GWA wants the Supreme Court to overturn the rulings from Iriarte that found the land reverted to GovGuam, and that certificates of title that Core Tech owns are protected under the law.
“GWA asks the Court to ignore the past because GWA did not plan for the future. Asking the Court to forgive its mistakes because it failed to plan is not in the public interest. GWA ignored Legislative mandates and conditions and covenants in a deed in order to properly reserve ancestral lands for public use,” documents filed by Core Tech this week state.
Guam law was clear that when ancestral land is not returned to landowners, the government must pay landowners for its use, Core Tech asserts.
GWA was clearly mandated to complete a survey map of the property back in 1997, or else lose it, and was also mandated to comply with all laws dealing with compensation of ancestral land owners, filings state. The requirement for just compensation was clear, the company’s attorneys argue.
“GWA broke its covenants and the law,” filings state.
The waterworks authority is seeking to interrupt the trial court’s ability to decide matters in the six-year-old lawsuit, Core Tech argues.
GWA could appeal any final judgment from the trial court, once it was issued, filings state.
