TRO against CCC extended anew

Because the American Arbitration Association has accepted the case of Best Sunshine International and Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC against the Commonwealth Casino Commission to serve as a non-binding arbitrator, the court has extended the existing temporary restraining order taken out against the CCC while the matter is taken under advisement.

Last Friday, CCC, BSI, and IPI came before U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona Manglona to address the plaintiffs’ previous motion for order compelling arbitration.

Arbitration is essentially a procedure wherein two parties agree on one or more arbitrators to make a decision in their dispute in order to resolve a disagreement outside of court proceedings.

During the hearing, the defense and the court agreed that because there is now an available opportunity for nonbinding arbitration, the motion for compelling arbitration should be deemed moot.

However, the plaintiffs continued to argue in opposition.

Because of this, Manglona took the matter under submission and said she would issue a decision by Wednesday, Aug. 24. In addition, the court set a status conference for Wednesday, Aug. 24, 8:30am and extended the TRO until Aug. 24.

According to court documents, BSI and IPI filed their notice of AAA case acceptance last Aug. 17 to notify the court that the AAA International Centre for Dispute Resolution will proceed to administer this arbitration as a non-binding arbitration under the ICDR’s International Arbitration Rules.

As of last Friday, an administrative conference has been set for Aug. 25, at 8am.

IPI previously filed a complaint against CCC and took out a temporary restraining order against the commission to prohibit it from moving forward with a hearing to revoke IPI’s exclusive casino commission.

According to court documents, IPI filed their complaint and emergency motion for a TRO last May 23. The court issued the TRO on May 23, ordering the CCC to cease and desist from proceeding with enforcement action 2021-001-005, including convening the enforcement hearing scheduled for May 24-25.

The parties appeared before the court for a status conference on May 25, where the defendants asked for more time to respond to IPI’s emergency motion.

Following the status conference, the court issued an order extending CCC’s deadline to file its opposition to IPI to May 31, with plaintiff’s reply due June 2.

Based on a stipulation by the parties filed on May 31, the court entered an order extending the TRO and granting the joint stipulated motion to stay briefing on IPI’s motion due to the parties’ significant progress toward a settlement.

According to the order, the court extended the TRO through July 8, and stayed the briefing on the plaintiffs’ complaint and emergency motion for TRO for a period of 30 days.
This is the third time the TRO has been extended.