XEROX Company has sued Imperial Pacific International in federal court for the casino investor’s failure to pay for services rendered and equipment it rented.
Xerox, represented by attorney David Banes, is asking the District Court for the NMI to issue an order awarding the plaintiff $182,905.88 for damages plus late charges and interest to the maximum extent allowed by law.
The lawsuit also demanded the return of the devices and related equipment rented to IPI, and for reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
Xerox sued IPI for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and quantum meruit, which, according to an online legal dictionary, is Latin for “as much as he deserved” — or a remedy to “recover the reasonable value of services performed by one party to another.”
According to the lawsuit, Xerox entered into a services master agreement or SMA with IPI on Feb. 26, 2016.
Banes noted that due to a clerical error, the agreement stated the name of IPI as “Imperial Pacific International Inc. (Best Sunshine Casino).”
At that time, Banes added, there was no company with the legal name of “Imperial Pacific International Inc. (Best Sunshine Casino).”
But both Xerox and IPI understood that they had entered into an agreement, the lawyer said.
Banes said, “Mark Badal, who was then, upon information and belief, the IT director of IPI, signed the SMA on behalf of IPI, and held himself out as the ‘IT director’ of Best Sunshine Casino.”
Upon information and belief, “Badal, at the time of signing the SMA, was an authorized representative of IPI with the authority and power to enter the SMA on behalf of IPI and bind IPI to the SMA,” Banes said.
In the SMA, IPI agreed to pay Xerox for services provided to IPI and its affiliates, within 30 days after the date of the corresponding invoice.
IPI further agreed to pay Xerox a late charge of the greater of $25 or 5% of the amount overdue (but not to exceed the maximum amount permitted by law) if Xerox did not receive a payment within 10 days of the due date.
In addition, the SMA provided that Xerox may recover an interest at the rate of 1.5% per month on amounts due, and immediately terminate its services if Xerox did not receive a payment within 15 days of the due date the lawsuit stated.
Banes said after the SMA was signed by the parties, and up to now, Xerox has provided services and products under the SMA, including, without limitation, printing device rental, provision of related equipment, supplies and customer services.
However, as of the date of this complaint, IPI had not paid all the invoices of Xerox when due, Banes said.
Banes said not counting interest or late charge, the total invoiced amount of the invoices that IPI has not paid is $182,905.88.
He said all unpaid invoices except for one dated Dec. 1, 2020 were sent to IPI more than 45 days before the date of the complaint.
Therefore, Banes said, IPI was more than 15 days overdue. “Some of those unpaid invoices even date back to 2017.”
According to the lawyer, as of the date of the lawsuit, IPI had not raised any objection to the unpaid invoices.
He said Xerox has repeatedly asked IPI finance and accounting personnel regarding the overdue payments.
“IPI either did not respond at all, or reassured Xerox that they were working on paying Xerox. But it never paid,” Banes added.
Xerox is the latest vendor that has sued IPI over nonpayment of services rendered.
