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Dental clinic owner ordered to explain non-prosecution of lawsuit vs ex-owner
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona yesterday ordered the owner of Toothworks and Open Choice to show cause why the court should not dismiss for lack of prosecution his lawsuit filed in 2005 against the former owner of the clinic.
Manglona gave plaintiff Alan Stuart Markoff, owner of Toothworks and Open Choice, until Sept. 15, 2016 to respond to the order to show cause, or his lawsuit against Todd Keith Johnson will be dismissed with prejudice.
Dismissal with prejudice means Markoff cannot re-open the case anymore.
Manglona said that on April 20, 2006, the court stayed proceedings in Markoff’s case due to parallel proceedings in a Texas state court.
The judge noted that more than 10 years have passed without notice from the parties as to the status of the Texas proceedings and without any other activity on the docket.
Manglona said “if a proceeding has been pending for more than six months without any action taken by the parties during that period, upon notice to the parties, the court may dismiss the proceeding for lack of prosecution.”
Markoff sued Johnson over the sale of the clinic.
Markoff, through counsel Eric S. Smith, accused Johnson of misrepresenting the company’s financial information that made the former decide to purchase the dental practice for $525,000.
Smith alleged that Johnson had shown his client documents that falsely represented the history of deposits made by the clinic’s patients and customers when they were negotiating the sale.
Smith said Markoff later learned that the amount stated in the consolidated deposits was overstated by approximately 25 percent.
