GHURA is bulldozing ahead to take about 42 acres of land in Mangilao for the new hospital through Eminent Domain.

GHURA filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Guam on Wednesday against property owners Hong Yi Tian Inc. and Dr. Joel Joseph.

The lawsuit states their lands are to be taken “for use as a site for a new hospital, medical complex and community development project.”

GHURA estimates just compensation for all the takings to be $6,653,000.

This all while a looming Dec. 31 deadline hangs over the Governor to obligate some $100 million in American Rescue Plan funds she wants to use for the medical complex but one landowner said he’s going to “fight it all the way.”

“This is hurting me, this is hurting my family, nevermind the amount of money that’s being spent by Guam taxpayers,” said Joseph.

Dr. Joseph is a veterinarian and owner of the Wise Owl Animal Hospital.

The 67-year old said he bought the land about a decade ago for his retirement.

“People don’t understand, they say they offered me $4 million. Over $2 million is gone right off the beginning between the loans and etcetera, then we have capital gains taxes. With what they’re offering me after having the properties for about a decade, I might make somewhere less than $100,000,” added Joseph.

He also bought equipment, got a permit and already started building on his property for Aquamation, an eco-friendly alternative to flame cremation.

“And the effluent, we were planning to sell to farmers as organic fertilizer at one half of the price they’re paying for fertilizer now. So we would have cleaner and less expensive cremations, aquamation technically, and the effluent would have helped our farmers,” said Joseph.

Dr. Joseph said he was willing to settle with GHURA for about one-third of his expenses while he keeps one acre for his plans, but was denied.

“They were going to give me one acre to do that and pay me to help move it. And I said we wanted to find at least what the frontage of the property is. They wouldn’t do that. They wanted to do that afterwards. I’m sorry, I don’t trust you,” said Joseph.

But the Governor’s Communications Director Krystal Paco San Agustin said he’s “threatening protracted litigation to extract greater compensation from GHURA than his land is worth, based on an independent licensed appraisal.”

She added, “ARPA does not authorize windfall settlements of taxpayers' dollars for enterprising sellers.”

The defendants have 30 days to file a dismissal.

It’s unclear what will happen to the ARP funds should the case drag on.

“We got a republican legislature coming in. All they have to do is vote that the hospital be at Ypao Point and the government has wasted all this money. Are they going to sell it back to the people that they took it from? No,” said Joseph.

Meanwhile, Guam Attorney General Doug Moylan said his office will be taking “appropriate legal action” against GHURA.

“I will not discuss in detail. But our team has been reviewing this since it was first made public, at least surreptitiously on what was going on between the governor’s office and GHURA,” said Moylan.

As reported, he contends GHURA violated the law in these proceedings in a pair of legal opinions.

Moylan is also in talks with the new republican majority legislature.

He's recommending they recall GHURA appointed officials, subpoena documents and strip their Eminent Domain powers.

“The legislature gave them the limited authority for eminent domain within their enabling laws and I think that this is the danger when you give non-elected officials such a powerful tool to take our property. It borders on communism,” said Moylan.

Meantime, lame duck senators failed to secure enough votes to override Senator Chris Barnett’s vetoed Bill 185 that would have required a new hospital be built in Tamuning.

But Barnett is expected to re-introduce a similar bill in the 38th Guam Legislature, saying he remains “fully committed to seeing the new hospital project through.”

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