HAGATNA (GUAM)
Pacific Daily News
July 9, 2019
By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert
A man who filed a May 2017 lawsuit alleging that a Talofofo priest sexually abused him more than 50 times in the 1980s is objecting to his lawyers’ request for higher attorney fees.
His lawyers obtained in 2018 a confidential settlement agreement with the religious order, Capuchin Franciscans, on his behalf.
The work is not done yet as the plaintiff, identified in court documents only as N.Q. to protect his privacy still has claims against the Archdiocese of Agana through the bankruptcy process.
N.Q. is represented by three sets of lawyers or law firms: Guam-based attorney Anthony C. Perez, Idaho-based James, Vernon and Weeks, and Honolulu-based Rosenberg McKay Hoffman.
Counsels would continue to work on N.Q.’s behalf in the bankruptcy context to secure additional payments as damages for the abuse he has suffered, Perez said in a June 25 filing in federal court.
Guam law provides maximum limits of attorney fees in an action involving personal injury or death. It also allows counsels to apply to the court, with written notice to the client, for an increase in the fee if attorneys consider that the contingent fee within maximum limits to be insufficient.
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