Zaji Zajradhara
DISTRICT Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has dismissed the defamation complaint filed by Zaji O. Zajradhara against Marianas Variety without prejudice, which means it can be refiled.
In a 12-page order on Wednesday, the judge also granted Zajradhara’s application to proceed without paying fees or costs.
Zajradhara’s complaint, however, was dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted and failure to allege diversity jurisdiction.
The judge allowed Zajradhara to amend his complaint no later than Feb. 13, 2025.
“Failure to do so may result in dismissal of this action. The first amended complaint must — independent of the original complaint — allege sufficient facts regarding each named defendant,” the judge added.
She also denied Zajradhara’s other pending motions.
Representing himself, Zajradhara named as defendants Younis Art Studio, doing business as Marianas Variety, its president, Amier C. Younis, and this reporter, Bryan Manabat.
Zajradhara sued the defendants for defamation, demanding $100 million in damages and requesting a bench trial.
He accused Variety of publishing a series of “false and defamatory articles” about him.
“These articles falsely accused plaintiff of criminal activity, dishonesty, and a lack of professional competence, often citing the CNMI Legislature’s ‘persona non-grata’ resolution without proper context. They [defendants] also misrepresented his past arrests and convictions, failing to provide context or exploration of potential rehabilitation. These articles have been published consistently over several years, demonstrating a pattern of malicious intent,” the lawsuit stated.
He wants the federal court to issue an injunction ordering the defendants to “immediately cease and desist from publishing any further false and defamatory statements” about him.
“This injunction should also require the removal of all existing articles and images related to plaintiff from the publication and online platforms, as well as the issuance of a public retraction and apology for the false and damaging statements made against him,” the lawsuit stated.
Zajradhara seeks $100 million for “the harm to his reputation, loss of employment opportunities, and emotional distress.”
He is also demanding “punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the court to deter defendants from engaging in similar conduct in the future.”
Failure to state a claim
In her order, Judge Manglona said Zajradhara “has failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted because accepting the facts in Zajradhara’s complaint as true, he has failed to allege any facts that establish defendants were acting under color of state law or that the private actor defendants qualify as state actors.”
In addition, the judge said Zajradhara “has failed to allege facts to establish this court’s subject matter jurisdiction under diversity jurisdiction….”
“Here,” the judge added, “Zajradhara does not allege any facts that support defendants are government actors or qualify as state actors. Zajradhara identifies the Variety as a newspaper, Younis as the President and Managing Officer of the Variety, and Manabat as a Journalist with the Variety. None of these Defendants are state actors,” the judge said.
Moreover, she said, “none of the defendants qualify as state actors under the state-action doctrine.”
Zajradhara’s complaint stated that the CNMI Legislature is responsible for the resolution designating him a persona non-grata, and that the defendants wrote articles citing the resolution.
“Publishing articles on this matter is not sufficient to establish a close nexus between the State and the challenged action for purposes of state action,” the judge said.
Zajradhara “fails to allege facts to meet the first prong of a § 1983 claim for either his First or Fourteenth Amendment causes of action. Because he does not allege facts to plausibly support defendants’ violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, these causes of action are dismissed,” the judge said.
As for Zajradhara’s diversity jurisdiction assertion, his complaint listed each defendant’s address as located in Saipan and states that both Manabat and Younis are citizens of the CNMI, and that the Variety is incorporated in the CNMI.
“Importantly, Zajradhara lists his own current address as located on Saipan and states that he is a citizen of the United States and residing in the CNMI. However, Zajradhara does not indicate his own state citizenship. In this case, Zajradhara’s complaint does not make any allegation regarding his state citizenship. Since the party asserting diversity jurisdiction bears the burden of proof, Zajradhara’s failure to specify his state citizenship is fatal to his assertion of diversity jurisdiction for his defamation cause of action. Therefore, the court dismisses Zajradhara’s cause of action for defamation for failure to establish diversity subject matter jurisdiction,” Judge Manglona said.
Labor complaints
According to the CNMI Department of Labor-Administrative Hearing Office in 2019, Zajradhara “has a history of filing many labor complaints.”
Recently, he sued Northern Marianas College for $100 million after the NMC-Small Business Development Center filed a temporary restraining order in Superior Court against him for harassing SBDC employees.
In March 2019, six House members introduced House Resolution 21-5 “to declare Zaji O. Zajradhara, formerly known as Steven Carl Farmer, a persona non-grata in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
According to the resolution, the Legislature is “cognizant of the malicious and ill-mannered actions of Zaji O. Zajradhara…in his filings of numerous labor claims against various businesses in the CNMI….”
The resolution stated that Zajradhara “has also expressed a violent and threatening nature to such businesses…and to the employees of the Department of Labor….”
