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Court issues property lien vs IPI
The U.S District Court for the NMI has issued an abstract judgment notice—essentially a lien—on all real properties owned by Imperial Pacific International LLC in favor of the seven construction workers who are suing IPI over labor violations and human trafficking.
Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy of the District Court for the NMI issued the abstract of judgment notice against IPI last week. The notice creates a lien on all real property owned by the defendant and gives the seven workers priority over all other liens.
By definition, an abstract judgment appears as a lien, or claim, against a defendant’s publicly recorded property. If the judgment is not satisfied in the ordered time period, the lienholder can force a property sale to satisfy the judgment.
According to the court’s notice, the lien is effective unless satisfied for a period of 20 years and may be renewed by filing a notice of renewal.
The amount of judgment is $5,430,595.58, plus post-judgment interest at the applicable federal rate, plus attorneys’ fees.
Recently, IPI asked the federal court to reconsider its $5,915,595.98 default judgment in favor of the seven construction workers.
In her order last month, District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, awarded the plaintiffs a total of $2,957,797.79 in compensatory damages, and $2,957,797.79 in punitive damages. The judge also awarded the plaintiffs a total of $332,350 for emotional distress, $65,945.79 for lost income, $359,502 for future lost income, and $2,200,000 for pain and suffering.
The seven workers—Tianming Wang, Dong Han, Yongjun Meng, Liangcai Sun, Youli Wang, Qingchun Xu, and Duxin Yan—were previous employees of IPI’s former contractor and subcontractor, MCC International and Gold Mantis.
The original complaint was filed against Gold Mantis Construction Decoration (CNMI) in December 2018.
An amended complaint was filed in March 2019 to include MCC International Saipan Ltd. Co. and IPI. It also added a claim for forced labor under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
To date, the workers have already settled with Gold Mantis and MCC International.
In its amended complaint, the workers asked the federal court to award them $3.86 million in compensatory damages and $7.72 million in punitive damages.
