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Judge: Reject company filings in US govt suit to collect $39K fines
The federal court has directed the court’s clerk to reject further filings from any agent of a construction company that is being sued by the U.S. government that seeks to collect $39,489 in civil penalties that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposed against the company for alleged OSHA violations in 2013 and 2016.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona said the court will only accept the filings from a lawyer representing the company, Northpac Corp.
Manglona said a longstanding rule is that a corporation must appear in court through a lawyer.
The judge noted that no attorney has made an appearance for Northpac.
Instead, an agent of Northpac filed at the court’s clerk’s office last June 5 a document that he said was Northpac’s answer to the U.S. government’s complaint. The document was signed by Northpac general manager Miguel Cruz Jr.
The clerk entered the document as Northpac’s answer but Manglona noted that it was an offer of settlement.
Because it was not considered a proper response to a complaint under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the court directed the clerk to remove it from the docket.
In the document, Cruz told assistant U.S attorney Jessica F. Wessling, counsel for the U.S. government, that this case should have been settled long ago. Cruz said that on May 30, 2018, they sent a letter agreeing to the offer of the U.S. Department of Labor-OSHA legal counsel Sonia Shao for a 50-percent reduction of the $17,102 penalty.
Cruz said they would like to settle by paying in full $4,940 and paying in installment at $300 a month the remaining $8,551.
In its lawsuit, the U.S. government asked the court to hold Northpac liable to pay $21,876.31 in the first violation and $17,972.88 in the second violation, or for a total of $39,849.19 as of April 10, 2019, plus accruing interest and costs.
