FORMER Imperial Pacific International LLC chairwoman Lijie Cui, through her attorney, Joey San Nicolas, has asked the federal court to reduce the total court-imposed sanction amount of $36,200.
“Ms. Cui gives notice that she will request the court to reduce the amount of said sanction amount in light of the court’s finding that Ms. Cui purged her contempt,” her attorney said.
In the notice filed in court, San Nicolas noted that on Dec. 22, 2021, the court imposed a daily per diem sanction of $200 starting on Dec. 23, 2021.
Then on Dec. 29, 2021, the court increased the daily per diem sanction to $1,000 starting Dec. 30, 2021.
On Feb. 3, 2022, the court granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion to extend time to allow their attorney, Bruce Berline, to return to Saipan, San Nicolas said.
The court then reset the evidentiary hearing for Feb. 18, 2022.
“By virtue of the court resetting the evidentiary hearing, the daily sanction of $1,000 was effectively suspended as of Feb. 3, 2022, and said sanction was tolled up until the next scheduled hearing,” San Nicolas argued.
Cui is a third-party witness in the lawsuit filed by 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.
Berline and attorney Aaron Halegua represent the plaintiffs.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI had repeatedly found Cui to be not compliant with a previous preservation order and contempt order regarding the electronically stored information or ESI that Cui created or used, including emails, and ESI data sent or received by others on her behalf.
In February 2022, the federal court approved the stay agreement between IPI and the seven plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs “shall stay enforcement of their default judgement in exchange for IPI and certain other parties securing a supersedeas [or appeal] bond in the amount of $6 million on or before June 30, 2022, committing other collateral, and fulfilling other obligations set forth in the stay agreement.”
On May 26, 2021, Judge Manglona entered a default judgment in favor of the workers plus post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees for a total amount of $5.9 million.
After IPI’s motion for reconsideration was denied by the federal court, the casino investor appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
