A judge in Kissimmee, Fla., has thrown out lawsuits against five Micronesian residents who were sued by a recruiting firm that accused them of failing to live up to their one-year contracts when they left their jobs in area amusement parks early.

The suits were dismissed late last week by Judge Ronald A. Legendre in Osceola County Circuit Court after the recruiting firm, the North Pacific Trading Co., and its attorney failed to respond by a court-set deadline and did not appear for a scheduled hearing.

In September, The Sun reported that North Pacific is one of a handful of companies set up to recruit workers from Micronesia and the Marshall Islands to work in low-paying contract jobs at nursing homes and amusement parks in the United States.

The firm charged employers fees of about $1,400 per recruit and required that recruits pay damages of $1,500 if they walked away from the job before their contracts expired.

North Pacific also collected fees ranging from $85 to $95 a week from recruits to cover the costs of housing and other services, some of which the recruits contend they never received.

The firm had asked Legendre to order each of the recruits to pay $1,500 plus interest and legal fees under the terms of promissory notes they signed when they were recruited in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Legendre's clerk said yesterday that no one showed up for the Wednesday hearing. North Pacific also failed to respond in writing by an earlier deadline set by Legendre.

The judge set those deadlines after the attorney for the Micronesians filed motions to have the cases dismissed due to inaction on the case by North Pacific. The recruits' attorney, Ronald W. Fraley Jr. of Tampa, was retained by Mease Hospital, in Dunedin, where many of the Micronesian recruits now work.

North Pacific, headed by David Bencivenga of Kissimmee, had filed suit against eight of its former recruits, but three settled rather than go to trial.

Among those who settled were Olfer "Oliver" Repid and Malinda Daniel, a couple who were recruited to work at SeaWorld but left the North Pacific program before their contracts expired. They did not have legal representation and said they could not afford to hire a lawyer.

Under their settlement, the couple must pay North Pacific a total of $5,100 including $375 in legal fees. They are paying it back at the rate of $250 a month.

In Orlando, North Pacific has also sued Mease Hospital, charging that the recruiting firm was "substantially damaged" when the health care facility pirated away its recruits who were under "exclusive client-agent agreements."

Under an international agreement between the two Pacific island countries and the United States, Micronesians and Marshallese are allowed to come to the United States to work without obtaining a visa.

Some of the terms of that international agreement, known as the Compact of Free Association, are now being renegotiated. Last week officials of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the United States initialed a preliminary agreement on a new $822 million, 20-year aid package under the compact.

A similar preliminary agreement with the Micronesian government is expected to be signed this week.

Other aspects of the compact, including provisions relating to immigration, have yet to be finalized. The final agreements will be subject to approval by Congress.

Negotiators for the two island countries have stated that they oppose any attempt to include new provisions in the compact regulating recruiters. Nonetheless, a proposal to require recruiters to register with the Micronesian government was recently submitted to the Micronesian Congress by President Leo A. Falcam.

The proposal, prepared by the FSM Justice Department, states, "The Congress of the FSM ... finds and declares that the active recruitment of FSM citizens by domestic and international agencies to work overseas is a matter of great national concern, and that many of the FSM citizens recruited in the FSM do not have sufficient understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities."

If the proposal is adopted by the FSM Congress, Justice Secretary Paul McIlrath said regulations will be issued setting up a procedure for the registration of recruiters.