Chief Justice Ramona Manglona has ordered IPI to object to a listing of items for auction within two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Northern Mariana Islands.-\u00a0Chief Justice Ramona Manglona<\/strong> has ordered Clear Management to\u00a0proceed with its auction of IPI assets starting August 30<\/strong>. The judge has granted a motion filed by seven workers to lift Imperial Pacific International’s moratorium on the sale in compliance with a US bankruptcy judge’s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The seven workers<\/a>\u00a0had sued IPI for labour violations and human trafficking. On May 26, 2021,\u00a0Judge Manglona issued a default judgment in favour of the workers<\/strong> as well as post-judgment interest and attorney fees totalling $5.9m. IPI appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after its motion for reconsideration was rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judge Manglona has now ordered IPI to object to auctions of items listed on Clear Management’s website within two weeks. She informed the parties that any sale would require court approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Saipan Tribune,\u00a0IPI has also been ordered to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees<\/strong>\u00a0for the time spent litigating IPI\u2019s objection to the limited receivership proceedings. The plaintiff must submit a petition for fees and costs no later than August 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to court documents, the court previously found that IPI violated the stay agreement by failing to increase a previously agreed\u00a0appeal bond<\/a>\u00a0for the judgement in the lawsuit filed by USA Fanter Corp. The plaintiffs sought to lift the stay so that IPI\u2019s gaming equipment could be sold to satisfy their judgment against IPI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At an August 16 hearing, the court granted the plaintiffs’ motion and\u00a0ordered the suspension of limited receivership to be lifted<\/strong>. The court issued a formal decision and order yesterday (August 18). In her order, Manglona stated which IPI assets could and could not be sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manglona said: “Clear Management examined a March 2020 list provided by IPI that identified 404 electronic gaming machines as well as 185 units of what Clear Management labelled ‘casino utilities’, which primarily includes devices used to count, shuffle, or deal cards. Therefore, these gaming machines and the playing card utilities, to the extent they can be found, may be sold by Clear Management.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n