Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International has refiled two lawsuits it had previously filed and dropped against the regulator and governor after settlement negotiations broke down, according to local media reports.
Marianas Variety claims the new lawsuits against the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, which allege breach of the casino license agreement, are related to disagreements between IPI and the regulator over a proposed settlement amount.
This follows multiple delays to a long-planned casino license revocation hearing, now scheduled to take place on 28 February.
The contents of the new lawsuits are similar to the original versions, which saw IPI seek 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 the license revocation hearing due to take place later this month.
IPI had previously dropped its lawsuits against the regulator and governor while settlement negotiations were underway.
Like the originals, the new complaints allege 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.
They also call for the regulatory fee statute to be deemed unconstitutional and for an injunction “preventing the enforcement of the Regulatory Fee Statute and 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 CNMI prior to the enactment of the annual regulatory fee statute.”
IPI wants the court to issue a declaration stating that the “Regulatory Fee Statute, as applied to IPI is unconstitutional.”
Legal battles between the CCC and IPI stem from the 2021 suspension of IPI’s casino license, at which time CCC filed five complaints against IPI for failure to pay its annual US$15.5 million license fee in August 2020, failure to pay its annual US$3.1 million regulatory fee in October 2020, failure to contribute US$20 million to the community benefit fund in both 2018 and 2019, failure to comply with its minimum US$2 billion capital requirement and failure to comply with a CCC order to pay all money owing to its vendors.
The saga continues.
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