YCO Corp. says Island Medical never paid rent

YCO Corp. has sued the owner of Island Medical Center for allegedly refusing to pay rent for YCO’s commercial building in Susupe.

YCO sued Micronesia Health Corp., owner of Island Medical Center, and five unnamed co-defendants for fraud and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiff asked the Superior Court to order the defendants to pay damages, attorney’s fees, and court costs.

YCO lawyer Brien Sers Nicholas stated in the complaint that YCO and MHC executed a lease of a commercial building agreement on Oct. 30, 2008. Under the agreement, MHC was to lease 3,500 square feet of commercial space in a building owned by YCO in Susupe.

MHC agreed to pay a monthly rental of $3,000; payment of $3,000 in security deposit; and an additional payment of $3,000 as utility deposit.

Nicholas said MHC took possession of the commercial space, but only gave YCO a check in the amount of $3,000 as a security deposit. It never paid the additional $3,000 for utility deposit, the lawyer added.

“YCO, upon receiving the check from MHC, deposited the check into its business account, only to be informed that MHC did not have sufficient funds in its account to cover the check. As such, the check was returned to YCO,” Nicholas said.

“MHC, all the while, continued to possess and occupy the premises, using utilities from the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. under YCO’s account and without paying for them,” he added.

In light of MHC’s non-payment of its utility usages, Nicholas said, CUC deducted the sum of $2,929.87 from the plaintiff’s utility deposit with CUC to cover MHC’s utility usages.

He said his client made efforts to have MHC vacate the premises and to pay for its illegal occupancy of the building as well as its utility usages.

Nicholas said MHC, in response, promised that payments were forthcoming—a promise that eventually turned out to be false.

To date, he said, MHC has continued to illegally occupy the premises without any payments whatsoever to plaintiff.

“MHC knew or should have known at the time it made its representation to plaintiff that the same was false in that it did not have the financial means to allow it to enter into such a lease arrangement with plaintiff,” the lawyer said.

Last January, Golden Bird Corp., a company that rents out commercial space, also sued MHC for allegedly failing to pay rent for its leased space, also in Susupe, and for leaving the premises in bad condition.