Sarandos L. Markos, Plaintiff-appellee, v. George P. Macris, M.d., Defendant-appellant, 42 F.3d 1400 (9th Cir. 1994)

Before: BROWNING, TROTT, and KLEINFELD, Circuit Judges

MEMORANDUM^** 

We construe Guam Government Code section 16027(d) as providing that persons engaged in commercial activities may not sue to enforce obligations which arose from such activities during a period in which the business was unlicensed. This interpretation is in harmony with both the statute's stated purpose of promoting "the policy of the government of Guam that all businesses have business licenses," see Guam Gov't Code Sec. 16027 (to be recodified at 11 G.C.A. Sec. 70130 (1994)), and the language of subsection (f) of the statute, which provides that "the courts shall liberally construe Subsections (b) through (e) of this Section in favor of the landlord or business person ...," see Guam Gov't Code Sec. 16027(f). Since the defendant neither stated nor offered to prove that the transaction between the parties was commercial, and all of the evidence in the record demonstrates that plaintiff's claim against defendant arose from a non-commercial transaction, section 16027(d) could not have provided a defense to the claim.

AFFIRMED.