U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona heard yesterday whether there is probable cause in an application for a mechanic\u2019s lien filed by a former contractor of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC in IPI\u2019s hotel-casino in Garapan. <\/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
Yesterday\u2019s hearing will be continued on March 20 at 3:30pm, in response to IPI\u2019s request to continue the hearing. IPI was represented yesterday by Joseph Horey.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff in the case, U.S.A. Fanter Corp., presented two witnesses: general consultant Antonio Mu\u00f1a and company owner Guo Cao Qian.<\/p>\n
According to the minutes of the hearing, Horey argued IPI\u2019s objection to the application for a mechanic\u2019s lien. U.S.A. Fanter counsel Colin M. Thompson argued for U.S.A. Fanter.<\/p>\n
U.S.A. Fanter is suing IPI for breach of construction contract and unjust enrichment allegedly refusing to pay $2,089,345 over landscaping improvements for IPI\u2019s hotel-casino project.<\/p>\n
U.S.A. Fanter asked the court to hold IPI liable to pay $2.08 million in contract damages. The company also sought payment for interest and attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n
The plaintiff asked the court to attach a mechanic\u2019s lien to IPI\u2019s interests in the real property on the project.<\/p>\n
IPI, through counsel, asked the court to dismiss the complaint or, in the alternative, suspend the proceedings pending mediation.<\/p>\n
IPI argued that U.S.A. Fanter has not complied with the mandatory mediation clause. IPI said it is undisputed that the parties have not mediated the plaintiff\u2019s claims and IPI never informed the company that it would refuse to a mediation. <\/p>\n
U.S.A. Fanter and IPI executed a contract for construction on the project on June 18, 2019.<\/p>\n
Thompson said the contractor repeatedly demanded that IPI pay all amounts due and owing for work performed, but IPI failed to pay.<\/p>\n
Thompson said that last Dec. 29, U.S.A. Fanter demanded to mediate their claims, but IPI refused.<\/p>\n
Pacific Rim Land Development LLC also filed an application for a mechanic\u2019s lien on IPI\u2019s hotel-casino project and on the land that it sits on.<\/p>\n
Pacific Rim, through Thompson, is suing IPI and five unnamed alleged co-conspirators for breach of contract. 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 be 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":"
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona heard yesterday whether there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12497],"class_list":["post-318630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ipi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318630","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=318630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}