2 Rota doctors sue RHC, CHCC

Two Rota physicians are suing the Rota Health Center and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. for allegedly failing to pay them for services in the total amount of $635,187.

Dr. Francois Claassens and Dr. James Toskas are suing the Rota Health Center and the corporation that runs it, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., in Superior Court for breach of contract and quantum meruit.

Quantum meruit determines the amount to be paid for services when no contract exists or when there is doubt as to the amount due for the work performed but done under circumstances when payment could be expected.

Claassens is demanding payment of $308,000 for all administrative leave, while Toskas is seeking payment of $327,187 for all administrative leave.

Toskas has been with the Department of Public Health since 1997, employed as a physician to serve Rota.

In 2005, Claassens was transferred from the Commonwealth Health Center where he was an emergency room physician, to RHC, where he has been employed since then.

According to their lawyer, Stephen J. Nutting, when Toskas joined RHC in 1997, Dr. Rod Klaassen was the physician on Rota.

In 2005, Nutting said, when Klaassen left RHC, he had accumulated approximately six months of administrative leave. Pursuant to the agreement that was then in place, Klaassen allegedly continued to be paid for about six months for the leave he had accumulated.

In 1998, Nutting said, the CNMI government and Toskas entered into a contract with specific terms and demands that Toskas outlined in a letter to the RHC resident director on March 11, 1998.

In 2005, because of Klaassen’s departure, RHC recruited Claassens to transfer from Saipan to Rota.

Nutting said that Claassens agreed to transfer to RHC in 2005, but did not receive a new contract until 2006.

As an incentive to encourage Claassens’ move to Rota, RHC allegedly agreed to provide certain “locum coverage” to Claassens and Toskas which provided for additional pay of $500 per day, or for administrative leave as had been previously been given Klaassen and Toskas.

For a period of seven years between June 2005 and December 2012, Nutting said, Claassens accumulated 5,264 hours of administrative leave.

The lawyer said that, on Jan. 15, 2013, two years after CHC became the CHCC, the RHC resident director, Sydie Taisacan, met with Toskas and Classens.

He said Taisacan confirmed that each were owed administrative hours for extra work performed, that Claassens is owed 4,928 hours and Toskas is owed 5,235 hours of administrative leave.

Nutting said that at Claassens’ present hourly rate of $62.50 an hour, he is owed $308,000, while Toskas, at his present hourly rate of $62.50 an hour, is owed $327,187.

Nutting said after a number of meetings with representatives of CHCC and its attorney, it became apparent that CHCC and the government questioned its obligations.

As a result, the lawyer said, Toskas and Claassens sent a demand to the Office of the Attorney General, and notifying the attorney general of a possible lawsuit to recover damages for RHC, CHCC, and the government’s anticipated breach of contracts.

On Jan. 9, 2017, Nutting said, the AG responded that they would not honor Toskas and Claassens’ contracts and would not consider any claims for quantum meruit to compensate them for the work that the doctors had performed beyond their normal work schedule.

Nutting said RHC and CHCC have breached their contract with Claassens and Toskas.