Troubled Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International has added the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands to a lawsuit previously filed against the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) in which alleging breach of the Casino License Agreement.
According to a Marianas Variety report, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios forms part of an amended complaint in which IPI is also seeking exemption from payment of all regulatory fees and a court order requiring the CCC to pay restitution for all regulatory fees paid in the past.
IPI’s failure to pay regulatory fees in recent years was the basis for the CCC suspending its license in 2021 and is central to a license revocation hearing due to take place later this month.
Palacios and CCC officials are named in the amended complaint, which alleges unconstitutional impairment of contract, violation of the contract clause of the U.S. and CNMI constitutions, violation of the takings clause of the U.S. Constitution, violation of the due process clauses of the U.S. and CNMI Constitutions, and breach of the casino license agreement.
Specifically, it wants the regulatory fee statute deemed unconstitutional and an injunction “preventing the enforcement of the regulatory fee statute and the collection of the annual regulatory fee against IPI, or mandating that defendants exempt or except IPI from the annual regulatory fee, given the express terms of the CLA entered into by IPI and the CNMI prior to the enactment of the annual regulatory fee statute.”
It also wants the CCC to pay restitution for all the regulatory fees it has paid in the past and for the court to vacate and nullify any orders made in relation to such unpaid fees, including the suspension of its casino license.
In response, the CCC’s legal representatives have filed a motion to dismiss
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