{"id":316986,"date":"2020-02-05T06:04:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T20:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=316986"},"modified":"2020-02-05T06:04:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T20:04:02","slug":"shutting-down-casino-will-affect-whole-nmi-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/shutting-down-casino-will-affect-whole-nmi-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shutting down casino will affect whole NMI economy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
File photo shows part of the fa\u00e7ade of Imperial Palace Saipan.(SAIPAN TRIBUNE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A hearing of a contractor\u2019s application for a mechanic\u2019s lien on the Imperial Palace Saipan can have an extremely significant and crippling impact on Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC and the CNMI\u2019s economy, according to IPI\u2019s counsel David G. Banes.<\/p>\n

Pacific Rim Land Development LLC 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

IPI also told Saipan Tribune yesterday that they are paying the CNMI government $15 million in annual license fee, $20 million in annual community benefit fund, an average of $50 million in business gross revenue tax in the past three years, plus millions of developer\u2019s tax, income tax, excise tax, and Commonwealth Casino Commission fees. <\/p>\n

Banes said the interests that will be at stake at the Feb. 11, 2020, probable cause hearing in connection with Pacific Rim\u2019s application for mechanic\u2019s lien, and the parties\u2019 mediation, are extraordinary and go far beyond the already significant $5 million-plus being demanded by Pacific Rim.<\/p>\n

Banes discussed the impact of Pacific Rim\u2019s mechanic\u2019s lien application in IPI\u2019s motion to continue the probable cause hearing on the application from the currently scheduled Feb. 11 to at least the end of March 2020.<\/p>\n

Banes said the continuation will allow enough time for the parties to go forward with their already agreed-upon mediation and for IPI to investigate and prepare the presentation of its counterclaims if mediation fails to resolve the parties\u2019 disputes.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona will hear today, Wednesday, on IPI\u2019s motion to continue the probable cause hearing.<\/p>\n

In IPI\u2019s motion, Banes disclosed that the Department of Public Lands secretary has indicated to him that if a mechanic\u2019s lien is placed on IPI\u2019s leasehold interest, DPL\u2019s position is that the lien constitutes a default on the public land lease and DPL would move to terminate the lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could potentially lead to the shutdown of the casino, with hundreds of workers losing their jobs, and send a far-reaching ripple effect through the entire CNMI economy, which relies almost exclusively on tourism,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Banes said there is no doubt that this lien proceeding is being used by Pacific Rim to force IPI into paying off its promissory note, without IPI being able to meaningfully defend itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPacific Rim knows full well the extremely huge potential effect that a lien can have on IPI\u2019s business (possibly leading to the shutdown of the casino) and the CNMI economy, and it has been soliciting third parties to pressure IPI into submission,\u201d Banes said.<\/p>\n

Instead of complying with IPI\u2019s subpoena by Jan. 31, 2020, Pacific Rim chose to move to quash the subpoena and has only selectively and incompletely produced some responsive documents, he added.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he said, Pacific Rim has agreed to mediation, but again, refused to provide documents sought by IPI so that the parties could have meaningful settlement discussions, and insists on not continuing the hearing even if the parties were to conduct mediation after Feb. 11, the current hearing date.<\/p>\n

Banes declined to disclose details of IPI\u2019s counterclaims, saying they are in the process of being investigated, but said that one of them relates to the qualifications of workers hired by Pacific Rim and billed to IPI.<\/p>\n

However, he said, hundreds of workers were hired by Pacific Rim to work in the IPI project.<\/p>\n

Banes said his office has been coordinating with a private investigator on locating and interviewing potential witnesses, but the investigator has reported back that the search turned out to be difficult, and more time is needed.<\/p>\n

Pacific Rim, through counsel Colin Thompson, is suing 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 on Sept. 30, 2018.<\/p>\n

Thompson said the unpaid amount that is owed Pacific Rim is $5.65 million, but it wants to collect from IPI approximately $10 million in damages that would proven at trial.<\/p>\n

The court then consolidated Pacific Rim\u2019s lawsuit and its application for a mechanic\u2019s lien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hearing of a contractor\u2019s application for a mechanic\u2019s lien on the Imperial Palace Saipan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[256,257],"class_list":["post-316986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-casino","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316986","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=316986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}