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Tottotville suit ends with award of $4.99M
After six long years, the Tottotville litigation came to a welcome end when Superior Court Associate Judge Perry Inos issued a binding and unappealable judgment awarding the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. $694,850.73 and the Castro Group of 34 Homeowners $3.78 million in damages against defendants SSFM International, Inc., Telesource CNMI, INC. and Telebond Insurance Corp.
Inos also awarded the Flores Group of 10 Homeowners (who had earlier settled some of their claims) $513,704 in damages against SSFM.
Both the Castro and Flores Homeowners were also awarded attorney’s fees and costs, to be determined later by the court.
In 2006, NMHC and the Castro and Flores homeowners brought claims against SSFM, Telesource and Telebond for breach of contract, breach of warranties, Consumer Protection Act violations, and violations of the CNMI Building Codes, among other things, arising out of the construction of the Tottotville homes.
In a statement issued yesterday by the plaintiffs’ lawyers, it said the complainants are pleased with the judgment and order of Inos. “Plaintiffs are pleased that the court recognized the damages suffered by the homeowners and the housing agency,” it said.
“The attorneys would like to express thanks for the perseverance of the Tottotville homeowners in pursuing justice in this matter. We hope that this judgment will result in timely compensation for all of the injured parties. Attorneys for the Castro homeowners, Edward Arriola, Matthew T Gregory and Bill Satterberg and counsel for the Flores homeowners, Vic and Jack Torres, and counsel for NMHC, Vicente T. Salas, F. Matthew Smith and Mark A Scoggins also expressed their appreciation to the court for helping the parties reach this final resolution of this matter,” the statement adds. (PR)
