ATTORNEY Bruce Berline has asked the federal court to find Imperial Pacific International LLC chairwoman Cui Li Jie in contempt of court for disobeying a valid subpoena.
Bruce Berline
Berline also asked the court to impose a $10,000-per-day fine as a contempt sanction on Cui until she complies with the subpoena, and to order her to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs resulting from her disobedience.
Berline and attorney Aaron Halegua represent seven construction workers who have sued IPI over allegations of labor violations and human trafficking.
The plaintiffs are Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan who asked the federal court to issue an order awarding them $3.86 million in compensatory damages and $7.72 million in punitive damages.
IPI has MCC International, LLC and Gold Mantis Construction Decoration (CNMI), its former contractor and subcontractor that employed the plaintiffs, as co-defendants.
According to Berline’s motion Cui was properly served as third-party witness with a subpoena to produce documents and appear for a deposition on Jan. 26, 2021 at his office.
Thomas Salas, in a declaration filed in court, stated that he served the subpoena to Cui on Jan. 18, 2021 with a check of $45 for witness fee.
Berline said after Cui was served, Tao Xing, IPI vice president for public relations, “immediately sent text messages to intimidate the process server” who was told that he would face “legal trouble” if he did not take back the subpoena.
The next day, Jan. 19, 2021, an IPI employee returned the subpoena to Berline’s office, the lawyer said.
However, he added, neither this attempt at intimidation nor the act of returning the physical subpoena negates its legal validity.
“Ms. Cui also never moved the court to quash or modify the subpoena. On Jan. 26, Ms. Cui then failed to appear for the deposition or produce any documents,” Berline said, adding that “Ms. Cui clearly violated her legal obligations under the subpoena.”
He is asking the District Court for the NMI to issue an order to show cause against Cui.
In an order issued on Dec. 8, 2020, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona found former IPI CEO Donald Browne in contempt of court and awarded the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees in the amount of $93,834.25 as sanction due to IPI’s repeated failures to abide by the court’s discovery orders.
IPI’s co-defendant, Gold Mantis, is represented by attorney Tiberius Mocanu who told the court in December that Gold Mantis had reached a settlement with the workers.
There has been no new court information regarding MCC International, which is represented by attorney Robert T. Torres.
IPI is represented by attorney Michael Dotts.
