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Contractor of defective Tinian airport terminal faces lawsuit
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Posted on Sep 26 2011
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
The Commonwealth Ports Authority decided to sue the contractor of the defective building designs of both the Tinian airport terminal and the departure area of the Saipan International Airport.
CPA executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero confirmed with Saipan Tribune that they will file a lawsuit against Texas-based firm Leo A. Daly Co. which the agency contracted for the building designs of two projects.
During last Friday’s special meeting of the board of directors, a supplemental budget of $130,000 was approved for the initial filing preparations of the case.
Deleon Guerrero admitted that CPA just hired the Alaska-based Law Offices of William R. Sattersberg Jr. and former Attorney General Matthew T. Gregorio to represent the agency in the planned lawsuit.
The two were the same lawyers who represented the CNMI government in a $10-million case against Leo Daly Co. for the defective building design of the Commonwealth Health Center dialysis facility which was filed in 2009. It was in August 2010 when a $2-million settlement was reached by both parties.
Deleon Guerrero described the lawsuit as the right thing to do for the agency, which commissioned an investigation to determine the merits of the alleged flawed building design.
Saipan Tribune learned that Guam-based Taniguchi Ruth Makio Architects had just completed the assessment that became the basis of CPA’s decision. A new design, correcting the defective one, was also completed by the same company under the $280,000 contract paid through CIP monies.
The executive director disclosed that the $130,000 supplemental budget approved by the board will be utilized for the projected expenses in filing the lawsuit, while compensation for the lawyers will be based on how much can be recovered from the case. The supplemental budget will come from the agency’s passenger facility charges revenues.
“We don’t know yet [the amount we can recover], but we hope to at least be compensated on the retrofitting that we need to do and the opportunity cost that we lost because we couldn’t open it up for the last three years,” said Deleon Guerrero, alluding to the Tinian airport terminal project.
