The Cambridge Housing Authority has won the first round of a legal battle with the construction company that renovated the authority’s Putnam School Apartments development, a 33-unit historic building housing low-income tenants over the age of 57 and people with disabilities. A Middlesex Superior Court judge denied B.C. Construction’s request for a preliminary injunction ordering the authority to pay $237,000 to the construction firm before any trial.
The dispute arose because B.C. Construction was more than a year late finishing the $12.1 million project to modernize the 1890 school at 86 Otis St., East Cambridge. The North Reading construction company and authority each claim the other was to blame, and each says the other owes several million dollars in costs. According to B.C. Construction, city agencies also contributed to the delay.
B.C. Construction sought $1.4 million within five business days when it originally filed suit July 3, asserting that the authority’s refusal to pay bills threatened its existence. The company reduced its preliminary injunction request to $237,000 at a hearing in August, saying the authority had approved two requisitions for that amount but was withholding payment. The authority responded that it was entitled to refuse to pay because the construction company owed the authority far more in costs caused by the delay.
Superior Court Judge William F. Bloomer said B.C. Construction had not met required legal showings that the company was likely to win its suit, that it would suffer “irreparable harm” if it didn’t obtain immediate relief and that the authority would suffer less harm from a pretrial ruling.
“BCC’s motion for injunctive relief is extraordinary in that it seeks to materially alter, rather than preserve, the pretrial landscape of this case,” Bloomer said in his decision. The judge went on to detail how B.C. Construction hadn’t met requirements for obtaining the pretrial order. The judge’s ruling was dated Sept. 18 but not made public until Oct. 1.
Lawyers for the construction company didn’t respond to an email. Authority executive assistant Nicholas DeSouza said the agency had no comment on ongoing litigation. The suit is apparently continuing; B.C. Construction filed an answer to an Oct. 17 claim by the authority.
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