FARMINGTON – A demolition contractor’s lawsuit was dismissed in Franklin County Small Claims Court when Farmington developers Byron “Buzz” Davis and William Marceau agreed to pay Walter Moody $750 last week.
Moody, of Canaan and owner of Moody’s Antique Buildings, filed a claim last month for $4,500, the maximum allowed in small claims court, saying the developers ordered him to bury bricks at the site of the former Maine Dowel Mill on Fairbanks Road. The contractor had an agreement with the developers to receive 50 percent of all salvage from demolition of the old mill, including the $9,000 worth of bricks Moody said he was forced to leave behind.
The developers said Moody was taking too long to finish the job as agreed upon in the contract.
Moody said Tuesday that Davis had initially offered him $375 but agreed to a $750 settlement. The case would have needed to be continued if it had not been settled last week and, according to Moody, both parties agreed they were too busy and just wanted the dispute finalized.
In 1997 and 1998, Moody was involved in court cases in Lewiston, Clinton and Gardiner regarding salvage jobs in those cities. The cities of Gardiner and Lewiston brought lawsuits against Moody. In Gardiner, Moody’s subcontractors unexpectedly found significant amounts of asbestos at the O.C. Woodman building and were not equipped to handle its abatement. At the W.S. Libbey Mill in Lewiston, Moody was caught up in an ownership dispute. In Clinton, Moody also found asbestos at the Ski-Land Woolen Mill. In all cases, Moody was said to have abandoned the projects, but Moody said he was misled. The amounts of asbestos and agreements for its removal were disputed.
This past summer, Moody demolished and salvaged materials from the historic Mills’ home on the corner of High and Lincoln streets in Farmington to make way for University of Maine at Farmington’s new education center without incident.
“I got into bad business deals with the wrong people,” Moody said Tuesday of the court cases.
“We basically paid him off so we didn’t have to deal with it,” Marceau said Tuesday. “We have other issues to deal with. We just put it behind us.”
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