THE federal court’s clerk on Friday received Imperial Pacific International LLC’s key to the liquor vault of its casino-resort in Garapan.
Attorney Aaron Halegua earlier issued a notice of his intention to deposit the key with the court.
Halegua represents seven construction workers from China who sued IPI over labor violations and human trafficking allegations.
The federal court previously issued a writ of execution in favor of Halegua’s clients regarding IPI’s personal property.
“In executing on that writ, plaintiffs placed a lock on the outside of a multiroom liquor vault in the IPI casino that contained a large quantity of champagne, wine and liquor,” he said.
“Plaintiffs maintained the key to that lock. Plaintiffs have resolved all of their claims against IPI, and IPI has demanded that plaintiffs give IPI the key and threatened to move for sanctions if the key is not returned by Friday, Oct. 28, 2022,” Halegua added.
But he said according to Michael White, the attorney for the receiver established in the case Fanter v. IPI, Case No. 20-cv-0003, the limited receivership encompasses all of IPI’s personal property, including liquor, and therefore the plaintiffs would be violating the court’s orders by returning the key to IPI.
In particular, Halegua said White referenced the court’s recent written decision denying the stipulation to stay the limited receivership.
In addition, Ping Shun Corp., another judgment creditor, told plaintiffs that because it had obtained a writ of execution against IPI’s personal property at the same time as the plaintiffs, the key should not be returned to IPI, Halegua said.
“Plaintiffs neither wish to violate the court’s orders nor any rights that IPI may hold; nor do plaintiffs wish to be caught in the middle of this dispute,” Halegua added. “Plaintiffs urged IPI, Ping Shun, and the Receiver to reach an agreement on what to do with the key, but no such agreement has been reached. Accordingly, in an abundance of caution, plaintiffs are depositing the key with the court so that it may be held there until the court is able to decide what should be done with the key.”
On May 26, 2021, the federal court entered a default judgment in favor of the construction workers plus post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees for a total amount of $5.9 million.
Because IPI failed to pay the judgment, the federal court granted the plaintiffs’ application for a writ of execution for the seizure of IPI’s personal property, including its casino gaming machines.
On March 16, 2022, District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted a stipulation filed in the Fanter case between the plaintiffs and IPI that stayed the enforcement of the writ.
Under the stay agreement, the court amended the receivership in the Fanter case to add the seven constructions workers as additional creditors with the right to step into the shoes of Fanter to enforce the judgment owed to the plaintiffs.
In that stay agreement, IPI recognized that in the event it failed to comply with the stay agreement, the plaintiffs would have the right to proceed with enforcement via receivership.
On May 27, 2022, Judge Manglona found that IPI was in default of the stay agreement.
The plaintiffs represented by Halegua are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
Recently, Clear Management Limited, the court-appointed receiver, sought the federal court’s approval of the sale of IPI’s gaming equipment in the total amount of $410,000.
Aaron Halegua
