William M. Fitzgerald
Education: Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan (B.A., 1971)
Temple University (J.D., 1974)
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Admitted to Bar: Pennsylvania, 1974; U.S. Territory of Guam, 1974; Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1974; United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1975; Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, 1978; United States Court of Claims, 1978; Federated States of Micronesia, 1982; United States Supreme Court, 1986.
Bar Memberships: Northern Mariana Islands Bar Association; Guam Bar Association.
Mr. Fitzgerald has been an active litigator for more than forty-four years in Guam, Saipan and the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, concentrating on commercial and personal injury litigation. Seventy-five percent of his cases have involved Japanese individuals or corporations.
He was lead counsel for Takayama Bussan in the billion-dollar Toyota Shoji bankruptcy and ponzi scheme originating in Japan. He secured a multi-million dollar golf course for his clients in Guam litigation, while uncovering fraud perpetrated on local shareholders, which resulted in the extradition and incarceration of a Japanese businessman and the disbarment of a Guam attorney.
He was also counsel for South Seas Corporation in multiple lawsuits against a Japanese businessman for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, securing for his clients the ownership of the hotel, which is now the Pacific Islands Club. South Seas Corp. v. Sablan, 7 TTC 577; 7 TTC 636 (DC N.Mariana Islands 525 F.Supp. 1033 affd. without op. (CA 9th) 691 F.2d 508 cited in 18B Am Jur 2d Corporation 1711 under Duty of Loyalty heading.
He represented AIG in a nine million dollar bad faith action securing summary judgment for his client and a finding of fraud as a matter of law by the District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands. Matsunaga v. New Hampshire Insurance Company, 1 CR 866.
Mr. Fitzgerald has tried more than thirty jury trials, and in recent years has settled or obtained judgments in excess of a million dollars in a dozen cases and participated as part of the team that settled the Shinsei Bank case for 200 million dollars.
Mr. Fitzgerald has argued eleven cases in front of the Ninth Circuit, including
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People of the Territory of Guam v. Dela Rosa, 644 F.2d 1257(reversal of Murder conviction);
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People of the Territory of Guam v. Rosario, 625 F.2d 811(reversal of narcotics conviction);
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Caldwell v. Enstrom Helicopter Corp., 230 F.2d 1155 (reversal of summary judgment); and
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Santos v. Nansay, 76 F.2d 299, in which the court affirmed a 2.6 million dollar jury verdict for fraud and assisting a breach of fiduciary duty against a Japanese corporation.
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He also has argued numerous cases before the CNMI Supreme Court, including Ito v. Macro Energy, Inc., 4 N.M.I. 46, which affirmed a judgment of 2.4 million dollars and is the leading case on tort law in the CNMI;
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Furuoka v. Dai-ichi Hotel (Saipan) Inc., 2002 MP 5, which held Japan Travel Bureau, the largest travel agency in Japan, responsible to its customers for dangerous conditions that it knew or should have known about;
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Matsunaga v. Matsunaga, 2006 MP 25, which held that breach of fiduciary duty required disgorgement by the fiduciary.