{"id":394946,"date":"2023-06-30T06:03:55","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T20:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=394946"},"modified":"2023-06-30T06:03:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T20:03:55","slug":"ruling-is-a-victory-for-entire-nmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ruling-is-a-victory-for-entire-nmi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ruling is a victory for entire NMI\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission board calls it as \u201ca victory for the entire CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission welcomed yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision reversing the U.S. District Court for the NMI\u2019s order compelling the CCC to subject to its complaints against Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC to arbitration, describing it as a \u201ctremendous triumph\u201d for the CCC.<\/p>\n

Assistant attorney general Keisha Blaise, who is counsel for the CCC, told the CCC commissioners at yesterday\u2019s monthly meeting that the Ninth Circuit\u2019s ruling basically means that the CCC may now resume its hearing to revoke IPI\u2019s exclusive casino license and proceed with the revocation hearing.<\/p>\n

CCC board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero said the Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision strengthens the commission\u2019s authority in enforcing the Commonwealth\u2019s casino gaming regulations.<\/p>\n

Blaise told the board that she received a notification from the Ninth Circuit that morning (yesterday) that it has reversed the U.S. District Court\u2019s decision in the IPI matter and remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court.<\/p>\n

Blaise said the Ninth Circuit agreed with CCC that arbitration wasn\u2019t required and that the decision on the license\u2019s revocation\/suspension should be submitted to the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can talk about strategy or whatever we might do, but eventually it\u2019s going to be back in front of the commission,\u201d Blaise said.<\/p>\n

She said they can discuss the CCC\u2019s strategy or next steps in a closed-door session. Because DeLeon Guerrero has recused himself from the five CCC complaints against IPI, they can talk about how that would work, Blaise added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Commonwealth Casino Commission board vice chair Rafael S. Demapan, third from left, presides over the monthly CCC board meeting yesterday at the Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai. Also in the photo is CCC legal counsel assistant attorney general Keisha Blaise. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s good news. We won!\u201d said Blaise, who received applause from four commissioners who were physically present at the meeting. DeLeon Guerrero, who is off-island, joined the meeting online.<\/p>\n

The commissioners praised Blaise and assistant attorney general Alison Nelson, who is the chief of the Office of the Attorney General\u2019s Civil Division, \u201cfor a job well done.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero said it\u2019s a tremendous victory for the CCC as it strengthens the commission when it comes to using its authority to revoke licenses for violations of gaming regulations.<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero said he has recused from the case because he previously functioned as the CCC executive director to prosecute the case.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Ramon M. Dela Cruz said he knew from the beginning that the commission, through its legal and fiduciary responsibility, will prevail.<\/p>\n

Dela Cruz said this is a major victory for the entire Commonwealth and not just for the commission. \u201cThat will show everybody who has been very critical of our operation that we do indeed know what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Mariano Taitano shared the sentiments of the other commissioners. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for [DeLeon Guerrero] to return to Saipan so that we can share that champagne,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Martin T. Mendiola said their legal counsels have been diligently working for the commissioners, but the results have been greater than just the commission. Mendiola said the real impact is to the entire Commonwealth in terms of the commission\u2019s function as the regulator of the casino industry.<\/p>\n

Vice chair Rafael S. Demapan said this is just one case that has been rendered as there are other cases that are still pending.<\/p>\n

The CCC appealed to the Ninth Circuit the August 2022 decision of U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona that granted IPI\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction and a motion to compel arbitration. The CCC asked the Ninth Circuit to review and reverse Manglona\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

The preliminary injunction granted by Manglona prohibited CCC from revoking IPI\u2019s exclusive casino license while the casino investor pursues its right to arbitration.<\/p>\n

Arbitration is a procedure wherein two parties agree on one or more arbitrators to decide on their dispute in order to resolve a disagreement outside of court proceedings. The three-day arbitration hearing in Honolulu, Hawaii was completed last month, but arbitrator Thomas J. Brewer has yet to issue a decision as of yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission board calls it as \u201ca victory for the entire CNMI.\u201d The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":394949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394946","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=394946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}