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IN LATE CECILIA FLORES’ $40M LAWSUIT TO COLLECT CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT
9th Circuit denies Derron Flores’ petition for rehearing
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has denied Derron G. Flores’ petition for a rehearing on his request to substitute him as plaintiff in the $40-million lawsuit that his late mother filed against a bank and its former employees.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed last month the federal court’s ruling that denied Derron G. Flores’ request to substitute him as plaintiff in his late mother’s lawsuit.
The Ninth Circuit judges agreed with U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona’s ruling that Cecilia Flores’ tort claims were extinguished once she died.
Derron Flores had filed a petition for panel rehearing, but the Ninth Circuit denied the petition on Friday.
A petition for rehearing is submitted to the panel of judges that decided the case.
According to the order, Circuit Judge Susan P. Graber voted to deny the petition for a rehearing and Circuit Judge Richard C. Tallman and U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana Ivan L.R. Lemelle so recommend.
Cecilia Flores originally filed the case in the CNMI Superior Court. It was moved to the federal court.
Cecila Flores sued Union Bank and its two former employees over a bank manager’s alleged unauthorized release of Donald Flores’ money years prior to his death from his $200,000 time certificate of deposit to a person representing him.
Cecilia Flores alleged that Union Bank “allowed an impostor to redeem her 1993 certificate of deposit and hid that …all these years to her detriment.”
Both Cecilia Flores and her husband, former Saipan Mayor Donald Flores, who bought the certificate of deposit, died while the lawsuit was pending.
Derron Flores, the son and only known child of the Flores couple, attempted to substitute as plaintiff.
In an April 2016 order denying Derron Flores’ request to substitute, Manglona ruled that Cecilia Flores’ claims were extinguished when she died in September 2015. Manglona also dismissed Cecilia Flores’ lawsuit.
Derron, through counsel Juan T. Lizama, appealed to the Ninth Circuit to reverse Manglona’s ruling.
In November 2017, federal jurors favored MUFG Union Bank in Derron Flores’ separate lawsuit to collect the $200,000 certificate of deposit.
