The foreclosed-on owners of the Boothbay Country Club want a court to throw out the Bank of Maine's sale of the club to Paul Coulombe of Southport.

In a civil suit filed in Lincoln County Superior Court March 6, Boothbay Country Club and James Reeves are claiming the public sale wasn't public, and that the bank misused confidential information.

If the court voids the sale and a new one takes place, Reeves might attempt to buy back the club from the bank, his lawyer Sumner Lipman said.

“There's a possibility Mr. Reeves could be a bidder and end up buying it back and owning the club,” Lipman said in a telephone interview March 6.

Reeves, of Cheshire, Conn., deferred all comment on the suit to Lipman.

Spokespeople for the bank and for Coulombe did not immediately return messages.

The suit claims a lawyer from the Portland firm of Bernstein Shur ran the auction for the bank, and that another lawyer with that firm, John Carpenter, is the registered agent for PGC2, the company Coulombe bought the club under.

“It would appear that Coulombe would have known through his attorney what the Bank intended to bid, if it intended to bid at all, at that the Bank and Coulombe conspired to reach the result achieved at the purported sale of the property,” the suit states.

On February 18, the Knickerbocker Group announced Coulombe's purchase of the club. The announcement stated, in part: “No bids came in at auction. Coulombe immediately began negotiations; within days, they had a deal.” It quoted Coulombe as saying the club was worth saving, as a critical component of the community.

Reached March 6, attorney Carpenter said the sale was valid. He had not seen the suit and declined to comment on its claims.

Wendy Paradis, the Bernstein Shur lawyer who represented the bank in the foreclosure process, did not immediately return a message.

The suit claims the sale was advertised as public and had to be public under Maine law, but that members of the public weren't let in to the auction. (A Wiscasset Newspaper reporter went to the firm's offices the morning of the sale. Paradis told the reporter the sale was open only to those registered to bid, with a $50,000 deposit.)

“Because the bank refused entry to members of the public, its purported sale was not a public sale, and it is void,” the suit states. It also offers the court additional grounds to void the sale: Under the terms of the mortgage, it needed to take place at or near the club, not at a law office more than 50 miles away, the suit claims.

The suit also accuses PGC2 of trespassing on the club property, damaging Boothbay Country Club LLC's reputation and interfering with its efforts to continue to run the club. It asks the court for an unspecified amount of money in damages. It's too early to determine damages, Lipman said.

Plans are proceeding for the club’s upcoming season, said Jeff Harris, president of Harris Golf, the club’s former owner that Coulombe picked to manage the course. Harris had not seen Reeves’ suit against the bank and PGC2, and declined to comment on it.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com