Halegua recently requested the District Court for the NMI to issue an order awarding his clients attorney’s fee in connection with their motion against Gold Mantis, which is represented by attorney Tiberius Mocanu.
Halegua, who is from New York, and Saipan attorney Bruce Berline represent seven construction workers who sued Gold Mantis, MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co. and Imperial Pacific International, LLC over labor and other violations.
Gold Mantis and MCC are former subcontractor and contractor of IPI.
Gold Mantis opposed the $160 hourly rate for two law student interns and wants the attorney’s fees requested by the plaintiffs reduced by 25%.
In response, Halegua said an hourly rate of $160 for the interns is reasonable.
“The higher rates make sense because summer law interns, unlike some paralegals, have received at least some formal legal training,” he said.
He added that the attorney’s fees requested are reasonable and the work performed was not duplicative.
“Gold Mantis does not provide any details as to how it arrived at the 25% figure, nor does it cite any case law or legal authority in support of this request,” Halegua said.
He said despite having access to the plaintiffs’ motion to compel against IPI, and the corresponding fee petition and time sheets, Gold Mantis does not identify a single actual time entry or specific part of a brief that is arguably duplicative.
Accordingly, Gold Mantis’ argument is unpersuasive, Halegua said as he also asked the court to award him additional fees for over five hours preparing for the reply brief.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona previously granted the plaintiffs’ request to order Gold Mantis to produce discovery materials in their lawsuit.
Judge Manglona directed Gold Mantis to obtain and produce financial records, tax records, and produce documents related to the People’s Republic of China and electronically stored information or ESI.
The judge also approved an award of attorney’s fees related to the filing of the motion against Gold Mantis.
The request for attorney’s fees includes Halegua’s rate of $400 per hour; co-counsel Bruce Berline’s $300 per hour; and the $160 per-hour rate for two law student interns who performed legal research and other work regarding the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
They are asking the federal court to issue an order awarding them $3.86 million in compensatory damages and $7.72 million in punitive damages.
