FORMER Imperial Pacific International, LLC chairwoman Cui Li Jie Cui retained Guam attorney David J. Lujan to represent her in the lawsuit of seven construction workers alleging labor violations and human trafficking.
Lujan filed an appearance on behalf of Cui on June 26, 2021 at the District Court for the NMI.
He said his law firm, Lujan & Wolff, was retained on June 26, 2021, but because of existing commitments and pending legal matters on Guam, “Lujan & Wolff respectfully requests that the status conference set for June 28, 2021, be continued to or after July 17, 2021.”
Cui is a third-party witness in the lawsuit of the seven workers against IPI and its former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration, both of which have settled with the plaintiffs.
Attorney Juan T. Lizama previously represented Cui, but she recently told the court that she was not satisfied with his representation.
Recently, IPI recently announced Cui’s resignation as board chair and executive director of the company.
Third status report
For his part, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Aaron Halegua, said Cui failed to obey the court’s preservation order.
In his third status report to the federal court filed on Friday, Halegua said the “status conference set to take place on Monday, June 28, will mark three months since the court issued its amended order for Ms. Cui to describe and preserve her Electronically Stored Information or ESI data.”
Halegua said as of the time of this filing, Cui still had not fully complied with the order to provide a description of her creation and use of ESI Data.
“Plaintiffs have spent more than 50 hours seeking to compel Ms. Cui to comply with the court’s preservation order,” he said.
He submitted the first status report on May 28, 2021 and a second status report on June 2, 2021.
“The reports describe a pattern of behavior by Ms. Cui and Mr. [How Yi] Chi to obstruct plaintiffs’ effort to preserve Ms. Cui’s ESI Data, which already warrants holding Ms. Cui in contempt,” Halegua said.
Chi is Cui’s interpreter of record.
He said on June 3, 2021, the court ordered that: (i) Cui must submit a signed declaration detailing the steps that she took to preserve ESI and responding to the specific questions posed by plaintiffs; (ii) her then-attorney Juan T. Lizama must send Cui’s cell phone and SIM card(s) to TransPerfect in New York City so that the data could be preserved; and (iii) Cui must search for an attorney prior to the next status conference.
As for Cui’s declaration filed on June 10, Halegua said it contained “false statements.”
“One such seemingly inaccurate or false statement concerns Ms. Cui’s SIM cards,” he said.
In Cui’s declaration she stated that a SIM card that she had been using on Saipan was kept in the “old phone” that was sent to TransPerfect.
However, TransPerfect stated that the phone did not have a SIM card inside it, Halegua said.
“The only SIM card sent to TransPerfect is the one pictured in Exhibit 2, which appears to have never been used,” he added.
“Plaintiffs are also in the process of investigating other statements made to the court by Ms. Cui and Mr. Chi that plaintiffs believe to be false.”
According to Halegua, Cui’s cell phone was not shipped from Saipan by Lizama until June 9, 2021.
“Because there was an iTunes backup encryption password enabled on Ms. Cui’s phone, but Ms. Cui did not have the password, TransPerfect’s copying of the device was delayed. TransPerfect was able to copy the data from the device on Thursday, June 24 (New York time), but needs additional time to prepare its report and analysis,” Halegua added.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has entered a $5.9 million default judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against IPI.
IPI has requested the court to reconsider its decision.
The federal court has also issued an abstract of judgment notice against IPI in the lawsuit.
The abstract judgment “creates a lien on all real property of the defendant and has priority over all other liens or encumbrances which are perfected later in time.”
A status conference is scheduled for Monday, June 28 at 9:30 a.m.
David Lujan
