Attorney Lujan will have until June 2 to submit a position paper regarding diversity jurisdiction.

Guam - Jurisdiction for some of the dozens of cases of church sex abuse lawsuits in federal court continues to be an issue and if no judge will take on the case, Attorney David Lujan says he will press on until they can find one.

Attorney Lujan represents 45 plaintiffs suing the Archdiocese of Agana and various clergy members in federal court for millions of dollars in civil claims of sexual abuse. Today he was summoned for a hearing by US Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan who expressed the same concerns he had last week regarding diversity jurisdiction.

At this point, it’s unclear for some of Lujan’s clients where they are registered as residents and Judge Manibusan wants to ensure that he will have jurisdiction to preside over the cases. Lujan notes that even if he cannot prove diversity jurisdiction for some of his clients, they will find a way around it.

"If there’s no diversity jurisdiction then we file it in Superior Court," said Lujan, acknowledging that the cases will be taken back to Superior Court despite the fact that many of the local court judges have already recused themselves for various reason.

"I guess at some point you know they’re gonna have to create a judge over there and that’s the reason why we left Superior Court simply because nothing happened," he said.

Also in court today was Attorney Jacque Terlaje who represents Archbishop Anthony Apuron, as well as Attorney Wayson Wong who represents former Guam priest Father David Anderson. Both attorneys declined to go into detail about their clients who are among the many priests and clergy members accused of child sex abuse.

Wong noted that he is from Hawaii and was retained as counsel to represent Anderson on Guam. He says he's unsure as to how much time he will spend on Guam to defend Anderson's case.

Attorney Lujan will have until June 2 to submit a position paper on his cases to address diversity jurisdiction. The next hearing is scheduled for June 13 at 10 am.