PARIS – A jury trial pitting a former Mt. Abram Ski Resort owner against Camden National Bank began Monday, nearly four years after the bank foreclosed on the Greenwood property.

Portland lawyer Daniel G. Lilley, who represents Steamship Navigation Corp. and its officers, Randy and Kathleen Dunican, is seeking between $4 million and $5 million in damages in the civil suit.

In his opening remarks Monday morning in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris, Lilley charged the bank with fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract.

Portland lawyer Peter J. DeTroy III argued otherwise. He is representing the bank and defendant Stephen C. Staples, vice president of commercial banking at the Camden branch.

DeTroy said that neither the bank nor Staples were guilty of any wrongdoing.

Lilley said the bank frequently gave the Dunicans, and the businesses of which they were the officers, loans without paperwork over a five-year period.

Among them was $650,000 on Sept. 25, 1998, to buy Mt. Abram Ski Resort and land at an August 1998 auction, a $100,000 line of credit for operations, and $300,000 in March 1999 to renovate the resort’s ski lodge.

Previous loans included:

• $60,000 in 1995 for a proposed steamship ferry boat project that never happened, DeTroy said.

• $450,000 in early 1998 to buy land in Warren on which to build a large rifle range and sporting business under RD Outfitters Corp.

• A mortgage agreement of $935,000 and $175,000 for five promissory notes on Jan. 22, 1998, for land, buildings and improvements on properties in Warren, Damariscotta and Wiscasset; $75,000 to RD Outfitters; and $30,000 and $15,000 to Schooner Investments Inc. for improvements to the Dunicans two restaurants.

The lawsuit states that in March 2000, Steamship was current on all of its loan obligations to Camden National Bank. It had cash accounts in excess of $160,000, and approximately $16,000 remaining on its $100,000 line of credit.

On March 14, 2000, Steamship put together a $274,000 loan request to improve its snow-making equipment at Mt. Abram and accomplish fall maintenance.

Lilley alleged that Staples and the bank “promised a big loan for snow-making equipment, and told them to go ahead and make the improvements, and, We’ll give you the loan.'”

The Dunicans and Steamship reportedly did as advised, spending a large portion of their cash reserves and drawing down the remaining $16,000 of the operating line of credit with the bank after its maturity date of June 15.

But, at the last minute, Lilley said the bank reportedly reneged on its promise of the snow-making loan on July 12, 2000, leaving the couple in default of their loans.

That, he said, led the bank to foreclose on the ski resort on Nov. 15, 2000, and other properties owned by the Dunicans and Steamship, including the Wiscasset and Damariscotta properties.

“They took everything, including their house and cars. These people went down and out. During the process, Mr. Dunican suffered two strokes that left him unable to speak, with one side of him paralyzed.

“It’s a sad case where the bank turned on him, and changed the rules in the middle of the game,” Lilley said.

In his opening statements, DeTroy said that the bank’s longtime trusted employees, Staples and Mike McAvoy, the senior vice president, had been wrongly accused in the matter.

“They did everything appropriately, and I believe the evidence will show this,” he said.

DeTroy said Steamship and the Dunicans were some of the bank’s biggest clients, having received close to $2 million in loans.

“This is ultimately about responsibility. Steamship had a legal obligation to pay back the money, and they didn’t,” he said.

After opening remarks, Lilley called Kathleen Dunican to the stand at 11 a.m. and worked through a chronology of the Dunicans’ banking relationship with Camden National Bank and Staples and McAvoy, both of whom attended Monday’s session.

At one point, Kathleen Dunican broke into tears when talking about the aftermath of the bank’s foreclosure actions and its effect on her family when it moved to Connecticut.

DeTroy began his cross-examination of Dunican at 3 p.m., introducing a flurry of documents before the session ended an hour later.

Outside the court, he described the issues between the plaintiffs and the defendants as “one of those unfortunate situations” where “nobody wins.”

The case, which is expected to last five to seven days, is to resume at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.