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Tinian Hotel seeks to collect unpaid bills from Oscar Rasa
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Posted on Jul 20 1999
A hotel owner on Tinian is seeking the court’s assistance in collecting unpaid hotel bills and other judgment award from Oscar Rasa, former consultant for the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission.
The Island Leisure Corp., which owns Tinian Hotel, has sued Rasa at the Superior Court for his refusal to pay his bills amounting to $5,200 which covered his four-month use of the hotel facilities last year.
Rasa was given 20 days to respond to Tinian Hotel’s complaint, but he never did, prompting the court to issue a default judgment against him.
He was ordered by the court to pay Island Leisure Corp. a total of $7,950, which included other damages aside from the hotel bills he had incurred.
Through lawyer Eric Smith, Island Leisure asked the court on Friday to summon Rasa and “examine his ability to pay the judgment.”
“He shall tell the court how he will pay, or if he can pay at all,” Smith said in an interview.
Smith said that if Rasa settled his debts, then the commission, which was also named respondent in the case, would be off the hook.
In an earlier response to Island Leisure’s complaint, the commission’s legal counsel Robert Naraja told the court that the commission could not be held responsible for the bills in question as it did not have a valid contract with Rasa.
When Rasa checked in at Tinian Hotel, he asked that his bills be charged to TCGCC. He stayed at the hotel from April to August 1998.
The commission’s acting chairman, Martin DLG San Nicholas, on the other hand, later told the Island Leisure that TCGCC “did not authorize anyone to incur hotel expenses.”
Smith said that, depending on Rasa’s response, Island Leisure Corp. will press the commission to prove that it had no responsibility over Rasa’s bills.
