A California company is suing Westport Island in a dispute stemming from the public boat launch project of 2010.

American Contractors Indemnity Company, which issues performance bonds, claims the town should have sent it more than $250,000, in connection with a bond the company gave the project’s contractor. Instead, the town paid the contractor, Bill Whorff Inc., directly, according to a complaint filed in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset.

The town denies the allegations and denies that a December 2009 letter, in which the town appears to agree to send payments directly to the bond company, is legally binding, the town’s attorney William Dale said in an interview July 9.

Without that letter, the company would not have given Bill Whorff Inc. the bond, the suit states. “The Town’s willful and flagrant failure to comply with the (letter’s) terms … constitutes a material breach of contract,” it states.

The agreement in the letter is “without authority,” Dale said. He acknowledged that First Selectman George Richardson signed the letter. However, Richardson was not authorized to sign it because the Board of Selectmen did not vote for him to do it, Dale said.

“If it’s one selectman, not authorized by the Board of Selectmen, it doesn’t count” under Maine law, Dale said. “There wasn’t a vote.”

Also reached July 9, Richardson deferred all comment on the case to Dale.

The suit, filed last month, does not ask for a specific amount of money. But it claims Westport Island paid Bill Whorff Inc. $256,129, for a series of bills the contractor submitted on the boat launch project.
Without Westport Island’s money, the bond company had to use “its own funds” to pay some of Bill Whorff Inc.’s subcontractors and suppliers on the project, the suit states. The company also covered Bill Whorff Inc.’s unpaid bills on a project for the Boothbay Region Water District, bringing the bond company’s total payout to $535,633 for the two projects, according to the suit.

Any losses from the Boothbay project are not Westport Island’s responsibility, Dale said.