Federal Magistrate recommends hotel pay quarter million dollars in attorney fees to NLRB, union

A federal magistrate in Honolulu has recommended that the Pacific Beach Hotel of Waikiki be ordered to pay more than a quarter million dollars to the National Labor Relations Board and to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, as the latest contempt sanction in a long-running dispute.  
Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi of the U.S. District Court for Hawaii rejected most of the hotel’s arguments and recommended that it pay more than 80% of the amount requested by the NLRB in compensation for its legal fees, as well as costs incurred by the union, related to the ongoing violation of an injunction order issued by Judge J. Michael Seabright in March 2010. 
That order was upheld by a federal appeals court in July 2011, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Hotel’s petition for review last month. Judge Seabright initially found the Hotel and its principal manager in contempt in November 2011.
Magistrate Judge Puglisi’s decision is subject to review by District Judge Seabright.