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04-02-02-CV01-0624 (Tan V. Younis Art Studio, Inc.)

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04-02-02-CV01-0624 (Tan V. Younis Art Studio, Inc.) 1 FOR PUBLICATION 2 21114 FEB -2 PM 5: f J.. 3 BY: �.-- 4 l.lfPUTY CLEEK OF COU�] 5 6 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS 7 CIVIL ACTION NO. Ol-0624A WnLIETAN, ) 8 ) CIVIL ACTION NO. 03-0116B Plaintiff, ) 9 ) VS. ) 10 ) YOUNIS ART STUDIO, INC., d/b/a ) 11 MARIANASVARIETY, ) ) 12 Defendant/Third Party Plaintiff, ) ) 13 VS. ) ) 14 STANLEY T. TORRES, ) ) 15 Third-party Defendant. ) ORDER GRANTING YOUNIS ART ==����==��-------------- ) 16 BENIGNO R. FITIAL, ) STUDIO, INC.'S MOTION FOR ) SUMMARY JUDGMENT 17 Plaintiff, ) ) 18 vs. ) ) 1!) YOUNIS ART STUDIO, INC., d/b/a ) MARlANASVARIETY, ) 20 ) Defendantffhird-Party Plaintiff, ) 21 ) VS. ) 22 ) STANLEY T. TORRES, personally and in his) 23 official capacity, ) ) 24 Third-Party Defendant. ) ---------------------------- ) 25 I. INTRODUCTION 26 THIS MATTER came before the Court on January 30, 2004, at 9:00 a.m. for a hearing 27 on Defendant Younis Art Studio, Inc., d/b/a Marianas Variety's ("MarianasVariety" ) Motion for 28 Summary Judgment. G. Anthony Long, Esq. appeared on behalf of Defendant Marianas Variety; 1 Robert T. Torres, Esq. appeared on behalf of Third-Party Defendant Stanley T. Torres; anL. 2 Steven Pixley, Esq., and Matthew Gregory, Esq. appeared on behalf of Plaintiffs Willie Tan and 3 Benigno Fitial. 4 II. FACTS 5 Plaintiffs Willie Tan ("Tan") and Benigno R. Fitial ("Fitial") each filed separate 6 lawsuits against Marianas Variety for defamation. Marianas Variety is a newspaper pUblication 7 circulated in the Commonwealth and in Guam. The primarybases of the Plaintiffs' defamation 8 lawsuit is the Marianas Variety's publication of political advertisements placed by the Third- 9 10 Party Defendant Stanley T. Torres ("Torres") concerning Torres's October 19, 2001, letter 11 ("Letter") to then Speaker of the House of Representatives and Covenant Party Gubernatorial 12 candidate Fitial. 13 Torres wrote the Letter as an elected Representative and delivered it to Fitial during a 14 House Legislative Session on October 19, 2001. He was also running for re-election as a 15 16 Republican member of the CNMI House of Representatives from Precinct Three in Saipan. The 17 Letter was fonnally entered into the House Legislative record by the House Clerk, and distributed 18 to other House Members. In the Letter, Torres questions Fitial about an alleged smuggling of 19 $100,000 from the Philippines back in 1985 when Fitial was Vice-Speaker of the House of 20 Representatives. He also questions whether the $100,000 was from "Mr. Tan" for repealing a 21 statute and for the commercial success of Mr. Tan in the CNMI. The Letter states in relevant 22 23 part: 24 Dear Speaker Fitial: 25 I am writing this letter because I think it is important that the voters knows [sic] 26 who they are voting for. 27 28 - 2 - 1 Pues, if you are going to be elected the Governor of the CNMI, and like many of your supporters are telling us about your sincere, honesty, and trustworthy [sic], 2 you owe the people of the CNMI to tell the TRUTH about the over One Hundred 3 Thousand Dollars you received in CASH, that you said you got fromyour friend, Mr. Tan, the money you smuggled out of the Philippines while you were Vice 4 Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1985? 5 Was the money Mr. Tan paid you for repealing the Foreign Investment Act? Was 6 the money you received fromMr. Tan for L&T Garmentand Poker machines which flowed intothe CNMI? Was it that money which let Mr. Tan walk into the 7 Lower Base governmentbuildings and public lands to become the largest garment fa ctory in the CNMI, thanks to very cheap rental fees, and isn't that the TRUTH? 8 9 ....[Letter continues to page two]. 10 Ben, tell the people the TRUTH. How many poker machines do you have or how many machines did Mr. Tan give you to operate and share the profits? Please tell 11 the people the TRUTH why Mr. Tan designated you to be the Director.ofthe Bank of Saipan where Tan owns 30 % of the Bank? And at some time ago 12 Mr. you were the Chairman of the Board of the Bank too? Tell the people of the 13 CNMI that you are also sitting on the Board of Directors of the MARIANAS CABLE VISION (MCV), representing Mr. Tan's $400,000.00 controlling 14 interest. Please tell the people the TRUTH that you are the President of the Saipan Tribune Newspaper which is wholly owned by Mr. Tan. 15 16 I understand that the Tan's Holding Company is also one of the Bidders to buy­ out the VERIZON Telephone System in the CNMI. I wonder if you are and I 17 wouldn't be surprised if you are also a player in this venture and if it will become a reality. Are we going to repeal again the Commonwealth Telecommunications 18 Commission (CTC) to the new owners favor? Just wondering. 19 Ben, tell the CNMI people the TRUTH that Mr. JERRY TAN, the brother of MR. 20 WILLIE TAN, once said that the people of the CNMI are all crooks, that the Saipanese are accessible to BRIBERY, everybody is or are related to the Governor 21 and are coming to us to trade favors for money. 22 While everyone has heard the rumors of your "VOTE BUYING", I know of 23 personal loan pay offs on behalf of the Committee to Elect Benigno R. Fitial. 24 Ben, didn't the Tans pay their way into the CNMI through you receiving that 25 money? If you think (in your favorite term) that I am a hypocrite, think twice. You know that I know all the facts. 26 Sincerely, 27 lsi 28 REP. STANLEY T. TORRES - 3 - 1 xc: House Members House Clerk 2 File 3 Three days later, on October 22,2001,the Marianas Variety printed a front-page story 4 about the Letter, with the headline: "Torres accuses Fitial of accepting bribe." That headline 5 6 was followed by the caption: "Filial calls allegation 'absurd '." The story was reported by 7 Marianas Variety reporter Ulysses Sabuco, who referenced and republished excerpts fromFitial's 8 media release in his story. The article identifies Plaintiff Tan as the party from whom Fitial 9 accepted the alleged bribe. The article also includes statements from Congressman Oscar M. 10 Babauta and Congresswoman Malua Peter. The article does not contain any comments from 11 12 Tan. However, Sabuco did contact Tan's legal counsel to obtain a statement, but he did not 13 receive any statement before the article was published. At the hearing, Plaintiffs' counsel 14 conceded that the October 22,2001, article is not defamatory. 15 Although the Marianas Variety had printed articles about the Letter on October 22nd and 16 October 24th, Torres pursued its publication as a separate paid advertisement,and paid for the 17 October 25th political ad. The October 25th advertisement contained the full text of the Letter, as 18 19 well as a photograph of Torres, printed alongside the additional statements, printed in large text: 20 "I don't hide behind legislative shield to tell LIES. I don't go to daily Mass and receive Holy 21 Communion and tell LIES." Prior to Marianas Variety publishing the political ad, the Variety's 22 advertising manager, Jeanette Sarabia, approached Mr. Abed Younis, the owner and publisher of 23 the Marianas Variety, to request publication approval for Torres's ad containing the Letter. 24 25 Sarabia sought Younis's approval because she considered the ad "questionable." Younis 26 approved the pUblication of the political ad without conducting any additional investigation 27 beyond the fact-finding conducted by reporter Sabuco over the course of drafting the previous 28 - 4 - 1 article. In the days following the publication of the October 25th advertisement, Torres placed 2 similarpolitical advertisements, which were also directed at Fitial, and manyof those ads 3 contained references to the contents of the Letter. 4 After the October 22nd and 24thnewspaper articles, Tan demanded (through counsel for 5 6 Tan Holdings) a retraction of the Letter from Torres. Torres responded by publishing another 7 political advertisement, which included the fullLetter, excerpts of the retraction demand, and his 8 response: "RETRACTION? OVER MY DEAD BODY." 9 InNovember of 2001, after the 2001 general election, Tan filed his lawsuit against 10 Marianas Variety. Tan also fileda separate lawsuit against Torres, which Tan and Torres settled, 11 andwhich resulted in a joint press release statement. the joint statement, Torres apologized 12 In 13 for "anydamages caused to Willie Tan as a result of his statements accusing Willie Tan of 14 criminal conduct." In March of 2003, Fitial filed this lawsuit against Marianas Variety. 15 In these two consolidated lawsuits, Tan denied that he paid Fitial any money for the 16 reasons alleged in the Letter, and Fitial likewise denied that he received money from Tan for any 17 of the reasons alleged in the Letter. However, Fitial admitted that in 1985, he did receive 18 19 $25,000 from Tan's brother-in-law, which he then removed from the Philippines. In order to 20 avoid having to declare the money to customs agents, Fitial stated, he divided it into batches of 21 $5,000, and distributed it to persons traveling with him on an official government trip, to be re­ 22 collected later. Fitial stated that Torres was among the persons who assisted him in removing the 23 money from the Philippines, and Torres confirmed this statement. Fitial stated that, after re­ 24 25 collecting the money, he surrendered it to a person in Hong Kong.
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