PARIS — The attorney for two businesses that filed suit against the owner of the Opera House in Norway says the parties are close to settling the cases.

Ted Kurtz, who represents Elise Thurlow of Albany Township and Albina Massimino of South Monsey, N.Y., said he and Opera House owner Barry Mazzaglia of Bitim Enterprises have agreed to conclude the case, but no settlement has been implemented.

Thurlow and Massimino ran the Colonial Coffee Shoppe and Beauty and Beyond Inc., respectively. Both businesses were located in the Opera House but were forced to leave in September 2007 after a sprinkler pipe ruptured and flooded the building. Thurlow said her business suffered $75,000 in damages, while Massimino said her damages amounted to $25,000.

Beauty and Beyond was briefly relocated to another building owned by Mazzaglia in Market Square in Paris before moving to Bridgton. Thurlow later opened another restaurant, The Brick, on Main Street in Norway, but the business later closed its doors.

In March 2008, both women sued Bitim Enterprises and charged the business with fraud, negligence, breach of contract and lessor liability. The lawsuit said Mazzaglia “actively concealed the building conditions” from the businesses and “failed to disclose to the plaintiffs the existence of the building conditions involving unreasonable risk of physical harm.”

In his reply to the lawsuit, Mazzaglia said neither business was significantly damaged by the flooding. He also said he tried to help the businesses and they acted in bad faith and defamed his company by filing the suit. Mazzaglia charged Thurlow with stealing items that did not belong to her while removing property from the building, a charge she denied in court papers.

Kurtz said none of the engineers he has spoken to has said Mazzaglia should have known about the conditions that led to the flooding.

“The owner of the buildings owes the tenants a duty to use ordinary care, and it’s pretty hard to come up with what Mazzaglia knowingly did wrong,” he said.

Kurtz said he and Mazzaglia have exchanged paperwork on an agreement. He declined to name any potential terms of the settlement. Mazzaglia was unavailable for comment.

The three-story brick structure and its associated clock tower are one of the more prominent features of Norway’s historic downtown district. Since the flooding, town officials have grown concerned about the stability and safety of the building and whether Mazzaglia has done adequate work to repair it.

In December, Norway voters authorized selectmen to try to acquire the Opera House by eminent domain. Bill Damon, a Norway selectman, and his wife, Beatrice, have contributed $200,000 toward the effort. The money would be used to compensate Mazzaglia for the takeover. An appraiser determined that the building is worth $185,000, but a judge would decide how much should be paid.

Mazzaglia has since filed an appeal in Oxford County Superior Court seeking to block the eminent domain action. He argues that the building conditions resulted largely from poor maintenance by the town when it owned the building, and that it is in better condition now than when he bought it in 2003. Mazzaglia said he is working to repair the building, and he has accused the town of abusing its authority by seeking to take it by eminent domain.

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