CHIEF Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI has entered a $5,915,595.98 million default judgment in favor of seven construction workers who sued Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC over forced labor and human trafficking allegations.
IPI’s mistreatment of the workers was “appalling,” Judge Manglona said in her 40-page order on Monday. “IPI was the driving force” behind the “egregious conditions” faced by the plaintiffs, she added, all the “while benefiting from that exploitation.”
She awarded the plaintiffs a total of $2,957,797.79 in compensatory damages, and $2,957,797.79 in punitive damages. The judge also awarded the plaintiffs a total of $332,350 for emotional distress, $65,945.79 for lost income, $359,502 for future lost income, and $2,200,000 for pain and suffering.
Judge Manglona subtracted from the damages the award recovered from settlements between the plaintiffs and IPI’s co-defendants, its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co. and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration (CNMI). Court documents did not mention the amount of the award recovered from the settlements.
The seven plaintiffs who were employed by IPI’s former contractor or subcontractor are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan. They are represented by attorneys Aaron Halegua of New York and Bruce Berline of Saipan with assistance from Times Wang.
Halegua, in a statement on Monday, said, “We are pleased to see that the court recognizes the egregiousness of IPI’s conduct and the severity of the suffering that it caused our clients. This is an important decision because eradicating forced labor requires that perpetrators of such abuses face serious consequences.”
He added, “Specifically, the plaintiffs paid high recruitment fees to go from China to Saipan based on false promises of high wages and good conditions. After arriving, the plaintiffs regularly worked over 12 hours per day, without rest, and sometimes performed 24-hour shifts. They were paid below the minimum wage, or sometimes nothing at all, and housed in unsanitary, overcrowded dormitories where rats crawled on their bodies. The defendants arranged for the plaintiffs to enter Saipan as ‘tourists’ instead of under a lawful temporary work visa, took away their passports, instructed them to hide when government officials came to inspect the worksite or dormitories, and refused to take them to the hospital when they suffered injuries. A supervisor threatened to kill the workers if they complained or disobeyed him. The casino also denied a federal safety inspector access to the worksite, despite reports of a high number of injuries.”
Berline said, “This decision marks a large step forward. IPI has known about the plaintiffs’ injuries for years, but has not paid them a penny. Instead, IPI has persistently denied responsibility for the treatment and injuries sustained by these workers who labored tirelessly to build its extravagant casino. We hope that this judgement will force IPI to realize that its past conduct is reprehensible to both the court and the Saipan community, and serve as a catalyst for change.”
Halegua said compensatory damages were awarded to the plaintiffs “for the emotional distress they suffered while being subjected to forced labor as well as any lost income and pain and suffering caused by the physical injuries they sustained.”
He said the court found that the emotional distress compensation of $425 per day for the time that the plaintiffs were subjected to forced labor was reasonable given “the egregious conditions plaintiffs were forced to work under.”
He added that the court “awarded $300,000 in pain and suffering damages to six of the workers, whose injuries included a scalded hand, crushed finger, and partially severed finger, and $400,000 to plaintiff Tianming Wang whose leg was engulfed by flames and who has been unable to work since the 2017 injury.”
Halegua said, in awarding punitive damages of $2.95 million, the court found that the “defendants’ conduct in this matter as a whole is appalling and IPI played no small part while benefiting from the endeavor.”
Martina Vandenberg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, congratulated the plaintiffs’ legal team. The organization has published a report analyzing all civil cases filed in U.S. federal courts under the federal trafficking statute, and according to Vandenberg, this is the first case of its kind on Saipan.
“This judgment demonstrates the redemptive power when trafficking survivors take justice into their own hands. All workers who have suffered forced labor and exploitation should have the opportunity to obtain justice in U.S. federal courts,” Vandenberg said.
The original complaint was filed against Gold Mantis Construction Decoration (CNMI) in December 2018. An amended complaint was filed in March 2019 to include MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co. and IPI as defendants. It also added a claim for forced labor under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
The plaintiffs have asked the federal court to award them $3.86 million in compensatory damages and $7.72 million in punitive damages.
IPI is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based company, Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited.
MCC International and Gold Mantis were the contractor and subcontractor of IPI in the construction of its casino resort in Garapan.
The plaintiffs have already settled with Gold Mantis and MCC International.
Asked for comment, IPI said its company attorneys are reviewing the court’s ruling, adding that the casino investor “will take the right course of action based on legal advice.”
