DISTRICT Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has granted the request of attorney Michael Dotts to withdraw from representing Imperial Pacific International LCC in the complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Dotts said IPI has yet to pay for his legal services, adding that he is owed a total of $140,000.
“I do not believe IPI is going to pay. I believe I now need to file suit and join IPI’s other creditors,” he added.
He said with each missed payment, he contacted IPI management “and advised that if the payments went unpaid, [Dotts] would suspend work and move to withdraw as counsel.”
On July 10, 2021, Dotts said he advised Ray Yumul, the chief executive officer of IPI, that if the casino investor “did not make a substantial payment toward what was owed…[Dotts] would move to withdraw as counsel in all remaining matters where [he] was representing IPI.”
On July 29, 2021, Dotts asked Yumul whether he, the IPI CEO, would object to Dotts’ withdrawal from this case and another separate matter.
Dotts said Yumul replied, “I don’t expect to object to your withdrawal.”
Although Yumul indicated that he was looking for substitute counsel for IPI, a substitute counsel has yet to be found, Dotts said.
He noted that there are no pending motions and hearings in the complaint of the U.S. Department of Labor and the USDOL secretary.
In her order dated Sept. 3, 2021, Judge Manglona stated that “a review of the record confirms this statement.”
She said IPI is no longer required to submit weekly reports to the court, but instead submits them directly to the secretary of the USDOL.
The judge noted that Dotts has served as IPI’s counsel for matters involving its exclusive casino license starting in 2015, and then started making appearances in a number of lawsuits pending in federal court.
“Dotts has fulfilled his obligation under this court’s local rules and has provided the proper notice to IPI. The court also finds that granting the motion would not prejudice other parties, cause harm to the administration of justice, delay resolution of the case, or prejudice other litigants,” Judge Manglona said.
IPI has been “remitting payment to the U.S. Department of Labor and…working directly with the department to ensure [IPI complies] with the terms set out in this case. As there are no significant pending matters before the court in this case, good cause has been established,” the judge added.
In 2019, IPI agreed to a consent judgment with the USDOL to settle and resolve the labor violations of IPI’s construction contractors.
On March 23, 2021 IPI and the USDOL requested the federal court to modify the 2019 consent judgment through a stipulation. The total amount owed under the previous consent judgment was $3,360,000.
According to the stipulation of the parties, IPI had paid a total of $1,929,425.28 toward the consent judgment from March 2019 to March 2021. The remaining balance from the previous consent judgment was $1,430,574.72 plus $47,856 wages owed to IPI’s former employees for a total amount of $1,478,430.72 due in the first amended consent judgment.
IPI agreed to make incremental monthly payments of $164,270.08 from April 1, 2021, to December 1, 2021, for a total amount of $1,478,430.72.
To date IPI has made payments totaling $821,350.60, from January to August 2021.
In a separate order, Judge Manglona also granted Dotts’s request to withdraw representing IPI in the lawsuit of seven construction workers who have alleged labor violations, including human trafficking.
Michael Dotts
