An Edgecomb man is making the same accusations against the Bank of Maine that his former business partner has made about the bank's auction of the Boothbay Country Club.

Clayton Longfellow of Edgecomb is James Reeves' co-defendant in a suit the bank filed over a loan the two men took out in 2008 to buy the club.

In a separate suit, Reeves and his company Boothbay Country Club are trying to get the sale voided. He claims the sale was supposed to be public, but wasn't; that it was held too far from the club and that the bank misused confidential information.

Longfellow makes all those same claims in his March 27 response to the bank's suit against him and Reeves. The sale was irretrievably flawed, Longfellow's attorney Thomas Ainsworth writes in documents filed in Lincoln County Superior Court.

Ainsworth wants the court to dismiss the bank's case and have the bank be fair in any subsequent foreclosure efforts on the loan.

“...(T)he bank has unclean hands and has not met the strict statutory requirements...,” Ainsworth writes to the court.

In another development, the bank wants both its lawsuit and Reeves' moved to a special state court, the Business and Consumer Court.

The business court is known for resolving disputes on a faster track than other Maine courts can.

Most are resolved in less than a year, compared to the three or four years they could take elsewhere in the state court system, according to Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley's February 2013 State of the Judiciary address.

Reeves’ company Boothbay Country Club is fighting the bank’s attempt to get the suits moved from the Superior Court. It's too soon to know if the business court is the right venue, Sumner Lipman, the lawyer for Reeves’ company, argues in opposition to the bank's requests.

A lawyer for the bank declined to comment. A bank spokeswoman did not immediately return a message.

Lipman's new court filings indicate that the legal battles surrounding the club are getting even more involved. “(Reeves' company) intends to bring counter-claims against the Bank and third-party claims against several additional parties,” Lipman writes. That is further reason for the court to wait before considering transferring the cases, he argues.

Lipman could not immediately be reached for comment.

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