The long-running legal battle between troubled Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International and one of its former contractors, USA Fanter Corporation Ltd, is finally over after a District Court judge deemed the latter’s financial claims satisfied.
Marianas Variety reports that Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona last week ordered the release of US$251,581 from a trust account to USA Fanter and officially acknowledged that a final agreed amount owing of $2,340,927 had been satisfied.
The case stretches back to 2019 when USA Fanter first sued IPI for failure to pay more than US$2 million owed for construction work it undertook on its Saipan hotel and casino complex in Garapan.
A judgement was issued in May 2021 awarding USA Fanter US$2,089,345 plus interest and costs, however failure to initially pay saw orders made for receivers to sell off various assets held by IPI, including gaming equipment and motor vehicles. IPI’s casino has been shuttered since March 2020 due to COVID-19 and the suspension of its casino license for failure to pay annual license fees.
IPI eventually deposited an appeal bond of $2,450,000 in early 2021 pending an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which was forwarded into the trust account last December. USA Fanter, meanwhile, launched an appeal of its own demanding additional payment for legal and other costs associated with the case.
According to Marianas Variety, the two parties finally entered into a settlement agreement on 19 July under which all of those costs would be settled for the amount of US$251,58.
“While the Parties acknowledge that, due to the establishment of the Limited Receivership, the court may not wish to close this case, all claims made by USA Fanter in this case have been satisfied,” the stipulation says.
As recently reported by IAG, IPI’s next battle will be to save it casino license with the Commonwealth Casino Commission revealing it plans to reschedule license revocation hearings for the fourth quarter of this year.
