A tentative settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Chamorro Land Trust Commission over the Chamorro Land Trust program.
Parties in the case spent two days in the District Court of Guam in settlement talks with Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren.
Details of the agreement have not been disclosed as it still needs legislative approval.
"It's been a long journey," said CLTC chairperson Pika Fejeran. "All of the time and effort and work that we put into this case, I am hoping it can allow us to refocus our efforts to help the program along in the way that's it supposed to."
The case has been stayed, according to court documents.
In September, the court ordered the parties to engage in another round of settlement discussions.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2017, alleged the CLTC practiced discrimination by limiting eligibility for land leases to “native Chamorros” in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.
In December 2018, the government of Guam won a major victory when District Court of Hawaii Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the U.S. government failed to demonstrate that the Chamorro Land Trust Act is based on improper race or national origin classification.
During an informational briefing in the Guam Congress Building last month, Fejeran told lawmakers that “great effort” had taken place during negotiations with the federal government but things stalled when the defendants rejected changing the term “native Chamorro” as defined in the Chamorro Land Trust Act to Guamanian.
When the local government rejected the negotiation terms, the federal government indicated plans to take the case to trial, which was slated for August 2020.
The trial date was vacated after the tentative agreement was reached.
