{"id":314176,"date":"2019-12-17T06:01:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=314176"},"modified":"2019-12-17T06:01:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:01:03","slug":"contractor-objects-to-ipis-concern-about-ghost-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/contractor-objects-to-ipis-concern-about-ghost-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Contractor objects to IPI\u2019s concern about ghost workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Colin M. Thompson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A former contractor of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC and its owner are objecting to IPI\u2019s subpoena that seeks records from the contractor suggesting unfounded allegations about \u201cghost workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin M. Thompson informed IPI general counsel Phillip J. Tydingco Tuesday last week that his clients\u2014Pacific Rim Land Development LLC and its owner, Keith Stewart\u2014object that IPI\u2019s subpoena does not give his clients reasonable time to collect and produce the large amounts of documents that IPI is requesting by that day, Tuesday, at 1:30pm.<\/p>\n

In his letter to Tydingco dated Tuesday, Thompson said IPI served the subpoena on Stewart last Monday at 3pm.<\/p>\n

Thompson said Tydingco is the attorney and IPI is the party responsible for issuing and serving the subpoena.<\/p>\n

Tydingco\u2019s last day as IPI\u2019s general counsel was last Friday. Tydingco, however, informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI last Tuesday, that he is no longer counsel for IPI in the case filed by Pacific Rim and several others against IPI.<\/p>\n

Thompson said Tydingco did not take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense on his clients.<\/p>\n

Thompson said the timing and scope of the subpoena are unreasonable and create an undue burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the terms of the promissory note and construction contract, your demand for documents is completely irrelevant and therefore your subpoena is unreasonable,\u201d Thompson told Tydingco in the letter.<\/p>\n

Among the documents that Tydingco requested in the subpoena are records detailing the qualifications of Pacific Rim\u2019s workers.<\/p>\n

Tydingco said there is a concern that not all Pacific Rim workers satisfied the contractual qualification standard for the work category and that there may have also been \u201cghost workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tydingco said this will necessitate IPI reviewing and analyzing the records detailing the qualifications of Pacific Rim\u2019s workers.<\/p>\n

Tydingco also requested for time records and actual payments made to all workers to ensure Pacific Rim\u2019s invoices were based on the actual wages paid to the workers.<\/p>\n

In Pacific Rim\u2019s and Stewart\u2019s objection, Thompson said IPI is now concerned that there may have been \u201cghost workers\u201d included in Pacific Rim\u2019s invoicing.<\/p>\n

Thompson said this concern is unfounded as IPI conducted multiple headcounts on the job site during the construction activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIPI\u2019s own audits would reveal any discrepancies between on-site workers and invoided labor,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona ordered Monday the consolidation of Pacific Rim\u2019s lawsuit and an application for a mechanic\u2019s lien filed against IPI.<\/p>\n

Last Sept. 20, Pacific Rim Land Development, through counsel Colin M. Thompson, filed the lawsuit against IPI for breach of contract. <\/p>\n

Pacific Rim subsequently filed an application for a mechanic\u2019s lien on IPI\u2019s hotel-casino project and on the land that it sits on.<\/p>\n

A mechanic\u2019s lien refers to a security interest in the title to property for the benefit of those who have supplied labor or materials that improve the property.<\/p>\n

Last Dec. 3, finding that Pacific Rim had not established jurisdiction, Manglona dismissed the lawsuit, but allowed the contractor to amend its complaint.<\/p>\n

Manglona also denied Pacific Rim\u2019s application for a mechanic\u2019s lien, but allowed the contractor to amend it.<\/p>\n

Last Dec. 4, Pacific Rim filed its amended complaint and an amended application for a mechanic\u2019s lien. That same day, the company filed an application for a mechanic\u2019s lien against IPI in a new proceeding.<\/p>\n

In her order consolidating the two cases, Manglona said that, while not identical, the applications for the lien involve the same construction project, the same property, and the same parties.<\/p>\n

Pacific Rim originally sued IPI and five unnamed alleged co-conspirators for breach of contract (construction and promissory note), and unjust enrichment.<\/p>\n

Pacific Rim claimed to have substantially completed or completed the agreed-upon construction work for IPI\u2019s casino-resort project on Sept. 30, 2018. <\/p>\n

Pacific Rim counsel Thompson said IPI owes the contractor $5.65 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former contractor of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC and its owner are objecting to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[12497],"class_list":["post-314176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}