Santos v. Nansay Micronesia, Inc.

• Citation: 76 F.3d 299
• Decision Date: 08 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-16711,94-16711
• Parties: 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 915, 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 1459 Enrique Agulto SANTOS; and Ignacia A. Santos, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. NANSAY MICRONESIA, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Page 299

76 F.3d 299

96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 915, 96 Daily Journal

D.A.R. 1459

Enrique Agulto SANTOS; and Ignacia A. Santos, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. NANSAY MICRONESIA, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 94-16711.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Jan. 11, 1996.

Decided Feb. 8, 1996.

Appeal from the Supreme Court Northern Mariana Islands.

William M. Fitzgerald, Saipan, MP, for plaintiffs-appellees.

Billie Ann U. Higa, Esner, Higa & Chang, Los Angeles, California, for defendant-appellant.

Before: LAY, ^* GOODWIN and PREGERSON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Nansay appeals a judgment following a jury trial in the Superior Court for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands ("CNMI"), which judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the CNMI. We dismiss the appeal for want of a substantial federal question.

This action was filed in the Superior Court after Enrique and Ignacia Santos discovered that they had been fraudulently induced to sign their real property over to their two sons, Jesus and Enrique, purportedly for tax purposes. Nansay and Jesus then entered a fifty-five year lease for Jesus' half of the land. Subsequently, Nansay attempted to dedicate the entire piece of property to the Commonwealth government as wetland in a land exchange Nansay hoped would make possible the development of other land owned by Nansay but which was limited for development because of environmental restrictions.

The Santoses received none of the lease proceeds, and brought suit against Nansay and Jesus for restitution and damages, including punitive damages if restitution was not possible. During an earlier stage of the litigation the other son, Enrique, had reconveyed his half interest in the property to his parents.

At the close of the evidence, the court submitted two claims to the jury, one for fraud and one for breach of fiduciary duty. The court provided blank lines on the bottom of the verdict forms to be used by the jury in awarding damages. Nansay objected to this procedure, arguing that specific restitution, not monetary damages for the value of the land, was the proper remedy. The judge reserved the restitution question until after the jury brought in its verdict.

The jury returned a verdict for the Santoses, and awarded them $1,591,800 in compensatory damages, and $1,000,000 in punitive damages. The trial court denied Nansay's motion for JNOV, or in the alternative, for a new trial, but dismissed the restitution claim as moot after the plaintiffs indicated that they would rather accept the damages than the return of the other half of their land. Nansay appealed.

Nansay's appeal to the CNMI Supreme Court did not raise a federal constitutional question. The opening brief argued, primarily, that the Santoses had sought and had been given the wrong remedy, when a better remedy would have been restitution. Election of remedy, and choice of remedy questions are questions of local law and do not raise a federal question.

The Santoses had argued that restitution was no longer possible, and that money damages were appropriate. This likewise presents no federal question. The first putative federal question appears in Nansay's reply brief, which, for the first time, raised a claim that the award of punitive damages violated Nansay's rights under "due process" without stating reliance on the due process clause of the Commonwealth Constitution or the federal Constitution.

The CNMI Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's order denying the motions for JNOV. However, the supreme court ordered a remittitur in damages, finding that the jury had "double counted" by providing damages for each claim separately, and by providing damages for the entire original tract of land when the Santoses had recovered half the land from their son Enrique. The supreme court cut the damages in half and affirmed as modified.

Nansay now appeals, claiming that the damage awards, as modified, still violate its right to federal due process, and that the local courts' interpretation of local law is untenable, apparently thereby violating some species of substantive due process.

JURISDICTION

The Santoses argue that this court lacks jurisdiction over federal due process issues because they were not properly raised or passed upon by the CNMI Supreme Court. We agree.

This court has appellate jurisdiction to review CNMI Supreme Court judgments in "all cases involving the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States." 48 U.S.C. § 1801 (Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, art. IV, § 403(a)) ("Commonwealth Covenant"). See also Wabol v. Villacrusis, 958 F.2d 1450 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1027, 113 S.Ct. 675, 121 L.Ed.2d 598 (1992); Ferreira v. Borja, 1 F.3d 960 (9th Cir.1993). This jurisdiction runs for fifteen years from the establishment of the CNMI Supreme Court. 48 U.S.C. § 1801 (Commonwealth Covenant, art. IV, § 403(a)); Wabol, 958 F.2d at 1456. Our jurisdiction over appeals from judgments of the CNMI Supreme Court is similar to the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisdiction over the decisions of the highest state courts, see 48 U.S.C. § 1801 (Commonwealth Covenant, art. IV, § 403(a)), which "extend[s] to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties," U.S. Const., art. III, § 2.

Normally, our review is limited to those CNMI cases in which the federal issue was adequately raised below, although whether this is a jurisdictional rule or a rule...