Also named defendants were Moneth Deposa, Jayvee L. Vallejera, Pacific Publications and Printing Inc., doing business as Saipan Tribune, and Does 1-3.
Felipe Q. Atalig and attorney Ramon K. Quichocho are the plaintiffs in the complaint filed in Superior Court.
Atalig is represented by attorneys Robert H. Myers and Michael N. Evangelista while Quichocho will represent himself.
The case stemmed from the statement of Dela Cruz which was published by the Saipan Tribune on Jan. 28, 2011.
The complaint stated that Saipan Tribune published the article without informing or confirming with the plaintiffs whether the allegations were true or not.
“The article reported on the false, malicious, unprivileged, and defamatory allegations contained in Dela Cruz’s Jan. 27, 2011 letter,” the complaint said.
The complaint said “the letter and article and their publication, as stated and twisted, was a false, malicious, unprivileged, and defamatory libel of and concerning each of the plaintiffs.”
“Defendant Dela Cruz knew or should have known that his statements above are false, malicious, unprivileged and defamatory,” the complaint stated.
It added that the “Tribune, [editor] Vallejera, and [reporter] Deposa failed to investigate the truth of the facts published and concerning each plaintiff.”
According to the complaint, the defendants violated Atalig and Quichocho’s constitutionally protected rights of privacy by placing each plaintiff in a false light among their friends, associates, and acquaintances in the community by composing, uttering, printing, publishing, and circulating the false, malicious, unprivileged, and defamatory statements.
As a direct and proximate result of the unlawful acts of the defendants, the complaint said the plaintiffs have suffered and continues to suffer substantial damages and irreparable harm to their reputation.
The plaintiffs formally request judicial judgment against all defendants for compensatory, expectation, incidental, liquidated, consequential and punitive damages according to law and proof, for punitive and exemplary damages according to law and proof, for costs of suit and attorney’s fees, and for such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper under the circumstances.
The Tribune did not reply to this reporter’s request for comments.
