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Award of $2.8M amended, govt now owes trader $4.1M
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Posted on Jun 19 2011
Superior Court associate judge David A. Wiseman has found the CNMI government’s liability to a businessman for breaching a building lease in 1997 is now $4.1 million and not $2.8 million as the court had previously determined.
Wiseman last week amended the order he issued last month to reflect that the government now owes a total of $4,130,919.78 to Joaquin M. Manglona.
Wiseman’s previous order awarded Manglona $1,826,838 in original principal judgment amount; $376,654.69 in prejudgment interest, financial charges and penalties; $414,403.30 in additional costs and losses; and $196,542.57 in lost opportunity, for a total of $2,814,438.56 as of Nov. 10, 2010.
In amending the order, the judge added an award of $1,316,481.22 in post judgment interest to Nov. 10, 2010. This would now bring to a total award of $4,130,919.78.
Wiseman made the amendment after Manglona timely filed a motion requesting the court’s reconsideration of its ruling with respect to denial of post judgment interest.
The judge heard the motion on June 9, 2011. Attorney Douglas F. Cushnie appeared for Manglona, but the government neither filed any response to the motion nor appeared at the hearing.
Manglona filed a $2.3 million lawsuit against the government in 1997 for alleged nonpayment of lease rentals of the building previously occupied by the then CNMI Immigration and Naturalization Office.
In 2003, Wiseman issued an order that found the government to have breached its building lease to Manglona. He awarded plaintiff $1.8 million plus post-judgment interest.
Both parties appealed.
In January 2007, Wiseman amended the award of damages and determined that the government is liable to pay $1.4 million to Manglona.
In June 2010, the CNMI Supreme Court upheld the court’s ruling but found that the prejudgment interest rate awarded was not enough to compensate Manglona for his actual losses.
The Supreme Court remanded the case to the Superior Court to determine an adequate interest rate that would compensate the businessman for actual losses.
After conducting an evidentiary hearing on Dec. 2, 2010 and Jan. 31, 2011, Wiseman in May 2011 issued the order that found the government’s liability to Manglona now reaching $2.8 million.
