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Mayor sues two banks for allegedly refusing to return his $200K TCD
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Posted on Oct 22 2011
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
Saipan Mayor Donald G. Flores is suing First Hawaiian Bank and Union Bank of California for allegedly refusing to return the principal and interest earned on a $200,000 Time Certificate of Deposit that he purchased from the then Union Bank Saipan branch in 1993.
Flores, through counsel Juan T. Lizama, is suing the banks in Superior Court for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, negligence or gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud. He is demanding unspecified damages, attorney’s fees and court costs.
First Hawaiian Bank, through counsels Richard L. Johnson and Thomas E. Clifford, filed yesterday a notice in the U.S. District Court for the NMI to remove the lawsuit from the Superior Court to the District Court.
Johnson also disclosed that attorney Lisa Rockwell, vice president and senior counsel at Union Bank of California, had advised him that Union agrees to the transfer of the lawsuit to the District Court.
Lizama stated in the complaint that Flores bought the TCD from the Saipan branch of Union Bank on Sept. 10, 1993. Lizama said the only evidence that Flores paid for the TCD that Union Bank provided is the TCD itself. Union Bank, Lizama said, did not issue any other proof in writing to Flores for the transaction.
Lizama said that on Nov. 15, 2001, Union Bank sold all assets and liabilities of its Saipan branch office to First Hawaiian Bank and that Union Bank did not inform Flores about the status of his TCD account.
When Flores attempted to discern the status of his TCD account and to demand payment for the TCD principal and interest, Lizama said that Union Bank claimed that it has no information to offer Flores “because the CD closed over 10 years ago.”
Flores then sent a letter to First Hawaiian Bank to ask what records that the bank may have had regarding the account. First Hawaiian Bank allegedly responded that, according to its records, it had not purchased the TCD account from Union Bank.
Lizama alleged that the banks breached the agreement by refusing to pay Flores the $200,000 principal amount due plus interest under the CD upon presentation of the demand for such payment, and by disclaiming knowledge or record of the CD.
