MODERN Investment Inc., owner of Saipan Ocean View Hotel, Trinidad Benavente and other unnamed individuals want the Superior Court to stop the opening of a new five-story hotel on Beach Road, Garapan until a soil testing and a geotechnical report or laboratory soil testing by an independent agency has been completed in the area.
But according to the contractor, it has completed its work more than a year ago.
The plaintiffs, represented by attorneys Robert T. Torres and Charity Hodson, filed a notice of application and application for preliminary injunction in November 2019.
The lawsuit seeks an order from the court enjoining Sunleader Co. Ltd., Hui Tao Tsang. Dragon Pacific Corporation, Sunyes Saipan Corporation, and Yantze Corporation from any further work or construction at the hotel project site.
The lawsuit also seeks an order stopping the opening of the hotel until the defendants “properly procure soil testing and geotechnical report by an independent agency or laboratory on the soil underlying the hotel.”
One of the defendants, Yantze Corporation, which is represented by attorney Sean Frink, said the plaintiffs “have failed to carry the heavy burden required of them to obtain the injunction they seek.”
He said the plaintiffs have “overlooked the fact that the requested injunction prohibiting Yantze from continuing to perform its work on the project is moot because Yantze completed its work there more than a year ago.”
Frink said Yantze can hardly be guilty of continuing “irreparable harm” when it is no longer participating in the alleged acts that the plaintiffs now seek to enjoin.
Irreparable harm, among other things, must be proven by the moving party in order for an injunction to be granted, he added.
Frink said the plaintiffs submitted no relevant, admissible evidence to support their motion.
“No evidence was submitted as to what the alleged damage to their properties is. No evidence was submitted of what defendants allegedly did to cause this alleged damage. And no evidence was submitted of whether the alleged damage may have been caused by any other cause, such as the preexisting ‘shoddy’ construction of plaintiffs’ buildings,” Frink said.
Yantze Corp. general manager Guo Qiang He, for his part, said, “Sunleader, not Yantze, was responsible for the design of the project through Sunleader’s hiring of architects and engineers.”
Saipan Ocean View Hotel, which is located next to the new hotel, has asked the Superior Court to halt the construction of the new hotel due to safety concerns and ground foundation issues.
In their motion for preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs included photos of cracks and damage to Saipan Ocean View Hotel’s building structure.
