Arthur Saldivar, we haven't reported on him since he was booted as a PUP standard bearer.
It made major news when an allegation emerged that he made off with almost a million dollars of his former client, Melonie Coye's money. His political downfall pivoted on that allegation, and he still has to clear his reputation in relation to that money.
Well, that case has been churning through the court system, and we learned that a default judgement was granted in Coye's favour because Saldivar didn't offer any defence.
That would suggest that Coye's position was vindicated, and that she won an established ownership of the 900+ thousand dollars. There was something unusual which happened, however. We were informed that Melonie Coye's lawyers applied to Justice Shona Griffith to get the default judgement vacated. Now, we have been unable to find out why they would want to do that, and we've also been unsuccessful in getting the details of the orders from that judgement.
Nevertheless, the default judgement was vacated today, and when Saldivar's attorney exited from court today, we asked him about the case. He left us more confounded than before the interview started:
Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney for Arthur Saldivar
"The judgment that they have obtained, the other side obtained in defense was made at their request. Of course we had also made a earlier request for sitting aside. The truth of the matter is that they were so anxious to enter a judgment that they counted wrongly; it was simply a matter of 1,2,3, but they succeeded in getting it wrong. So having realize that, they put it in 3 days earlier that it was to comment. They had ask the judge to please set it aside for them and we agree at a cost to us of one thousand dollars."
Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, talk to us about this judgment and what effect would have been had it not been vacated?"
Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney for Arthur Saldivar
"Well if they claimed certain orders and directions in a claim as was done, the entire orders and directions that were claimed would have been in effect given by the court and then the matter between Saldivar on one hand and Coye on the other hand would have been completely concluded, but remember we are saying that it seems to us strange that Ms. Coye who was not the owner of any money that was seized by the police because the admission was of all times that the money belong to her father, so we are kind of baffled by her claim that this money is hers and she ought to be given it, so we wanted the matter to go forward to clarify that issue at least."
Daniel Ortiz
"Doesn't the fact remains then that it still belongs to the Coye family? Doesn't it still belong to her father in his estate?"
Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney for Arthur Saldivar
"Well go and apply for administration of estate, that's what you do. If you died, you would have to apply for administration of estate. The law is clear. Nobody has applied for administration of estate."
Reporter
"She can still do that?"
Hubert Elrington, SC - Attorney for Arthur Saldivar
"Well anybody who thinks they have a right to the estate can apply. That's what the law says."
Nevertheless, the vacating of the judgment means that the case must continue, and the attorneys meet for a case management conference in January of next year.
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