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UMDA, ex-officer agree to settlement talks
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Posted on Apr 04 2012
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
Reporter
Hiroyuki Saito, a former chief financial officer of the United Micronesia Development Association Inc., has agreed to a conference to settle their dispute.
Saito and UMDA, through their respective lawyers, Mark A. Scoggins and Robert T. Torres, requested the U.S. District Court for the NMI to appoint U.S. Magistrate Judge of the District of Guam Joaquin V.E. Manibusan Jr. to be the mediator/settlement judge.
In the requests filed on Monday, Scoggins and Torres asked the court to put on hold the arbitration order issued by designated Judge Wallace Tashima.
“The parties agree that they wish to pursue resolution through non-binding mediation and with a settlement conference,” Scoggins and Torres said.
The lawyers asked that the settlement conference be scheduled on April 25, 2012, at 10:30am.
Saito and UMDA expect the mediation process to last the entire day.
Attending the conference are the two lawyers, Saito, UMDA chief executive officer David Wickline, UMDA chief financial officer Rufo Mafnas and/or UMDA board chair Jose R. Lifoifoi.
Saito sued UMDA to compel the company to arbitrate their disputes. He claimed that UMDA’s total outstanding liability to him under the terms of a renewed contract is at least $975,000.
In February 2011, the federal court granted UMDA’s motion to dismiss Saito’s lawsuit.
The court agreed with UMDA counsel Torres that Saito does not adequately allege a breach of contract in this lawsuit because he does not adequately allege the existence of any contract to be breached. The judge, however, gave Saito time to amend his complaint.
In May 2011, Saito filed an amended complaint, alleging that UMDA terminated his employment effective immediately and without cause on Dec. 7, 2009.
