-23by the Micronesian Claims Commission. Instead of receiving each claim and the evidence to support it, and making a judgment based upon the merits of each case, the Commission at the very outset of the program set up arbitrary values for every conceivable kind of loss. It then proceeded to grind out the decisions one after another in exactly the same amounts, without regard to the specific losses suffered by each claimant, despite the clear statutory mandate that the Commission was to “render final decisions in accordance with the laws of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and international law." 50 U.S.C.App. §2019c(a). When the plaintiffs in Melong and Ralpho were successful on appeal, the cases were remanded to the District Court, where for the first time the class action issue was reached by the trial judge. Despite the fact that all of the Micronesian claimants had received the same standardized mistreatment by the Commission, the District Court denied relief for anyone other than those who had actually been named in the complaint. We have appealed that decision, the briefs are all in for both sides and we expect the Court to hear the appeal sometime in the next few months. Copies of our briefs and the briefs filed by the government have been provided to this Committee. We are aware that two years ago, in its deliberations upon-the Omnibus Territories Act of 1977, this Committee felt that because of the pendency of this litigation, legislation |