Suit vs ex-Tinian mayor, Tribune dismissed

A Superior Court judge dismissed yesterday the defamation lawsuit filed by former Saipan Municipal Council member Felipe Q. Atalig against former Tinian Mayor Ramon M. Dela Cruz and the Saipan Tribune.

Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit against Dela Cruz, Saipan Tribune, , its editor Jayvee L. Vallejera, and its former reporter Moneth Deposa.

Dismissed with prejudice means that Atalig can no longer re-file the case.

Camacho ordered the dismissal after Atalig and the defendants indicated that they have settled their differences without the exchange of an amount paid in settlement.

The parties’ stipulation, however, does not include disbarred lawyer Ramon Quichocho, who is Atalig’s co-plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The stipulation was signed by Michael N. Evangelista, counsel for Atalig; Charles Brasington, counsel for Dela Cruz; and Steven P. Pixley, counsel for Saipan Tribune owner Pacific Publications and Printing Inc., Vallejera, and Deposa.

According to the stipulation, no amount is being paid for the dismissal; instead, the parties have determined that it is in all parties’ and the court’s best interests for the matter to end now.

Atalig and Quichocho filed the lawsuit in February 2011. It stemmed from Dela Cruz’s statement that was written by Deposa and published by the Saipan Tribune on Jan. 28, 2011.

Atalig and Quichocho stated in the complaint that Saipan Tribune published the article without informing or confirming with them whether the allegations were true or not.

Last Sept. 21, Saipan Tribune, Vallejera, and Deposa, through Pixley, asked the court to dismiss the case because Atalig and Quichocho have not taken any action on this case for five years.

Dela Cruz, through Brasington, joined in the motion to dismiss for lack of prosecution.

Last Dec. 14, Atalig and the defendants filed a stipulation to dismiss. Camacho granted it.

In an order last week, Camacho noted that the stipulation does not include Quichocho and that the latter’s claim is still pending. The judge set the motion for lack of prosecution on Jan. 31, 2017, at 1:30pm.

In his declaration filed in the U.S. District Court for the NMI in April 2015, Quichocho says he is now self-employed in Tacoma, Washington.

The district court ordered Quichocho to pay $2.8 million in damages, costs, and attorney’s fees to businesswoman Jung Ja Kim, who prevailed in her racketeering lawsuit against him and his wife. The Quichocho couple, however, moved to Washington, where they filed a bankruptcy petition in the Western District of Washington.