CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI has granted the request of former Imperial Pacific International LLC Chairwoman Lijie Cui “to retrieve her safe and personal belongings” from the unfinished Imperial Pacific Resort & Casino in Garapan.
On April 26, 2022, after the federal court received a hand-delivered letter from Cui, the judge informed the attorneys in the civil action about it.
“Because it pertains to this civil action and is an ex parte communication, I am providing all parties a copy,” Judge Manglona said.
“This letter to counsel will be filed publicly, but the attachment [Cui’s letter] will be under seal as part of the court’s records,” she added.
On May 4, 2022, Judge Manglona granted Cui’s request and scheduled a status conference hearing for May 20 at 3:30 p.m.
Cui is a third-party witness in the lawsuit of seven construction workers against IPI and its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, both of which have already settled with the plaintiffs: Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan.
Previously, Judge Manglona ordered Cui to pay a total of $42,200 in court-imposed sanctions for repeatedly not complying with court orders regarding the Electronically Stored Information or ESI that she created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
As the $5.4 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI remained unsatisfied, all ESI data held by the former IPI chair remain relevant to the proceeding, the court stated.
Attorneys Aaron Halegua and Bruce Berline represent the plaintiffs, while Cui is represented by attorney Joey San Nicolas. IPI is represented by attorneys Daniel Weiner and Kevin T. Abikoff.
