Justice awards fired employee $54,000

BANGOR – A Penobscot County Superior Court justice ordered the Maine Sports Complex in Hampden, locally known as “the Bubble,” to pay a former employee more than $40,000 in back pay and compensatory damages.

Justice Andrew Mead also ordered the management of the air-inflated facility to pay former employee Gary Walker’s attorneys’ fees, interest and costs amounting to $13,728. The total of the award was $54,013 and includes three months severance and a court-ordered tripling of the wages that the former British professional soccer player said he was owed. Walker said he was not paid in the six months’ he worked at the complex under a contract.

“We just thought the truth would prevail and it has,” Walker said Thursday. Walker’s wife, Melanie, was listed as a co-plaintiff in the case, although Mead found no basis to provide any financial recovery to her.

In his decision this week, Mead found no basis to hold Maine Sports Complex owner Pete Madigan personally liable for the judgment against the complex. Reached by phone at the complex, Madigan declined to comment on the ruling and his attorney Richard Silver could not be reached for comment.

Walker filed the lawsuit in January 2003, claiming the May 2002 contract with Madigan entitled him to $4,458 per month, but that he was paid only $3,000 a month and given $450 per month to offset health insurance. Sometimes he wasn’t even paid that.

Fired in October 2002, Walker was forced to return to England because of visa requirements. Part of Mead’s decision included $667 for airfare, which Walker said was an included expense in the contract.

The court decision is the latest setback to the domed facility. Opened in March 2002, the Bubble has had to overcome deep financial problems – some of which persist – as well as two instances of the dome deflating. Vandals slashed a tear in the fabric last fall, temporarily taking down the dome, and the bubble lost air again in December because of pressure from mounting snow on the repaired dome, according to complex officials.

Contractors and businesses that once helped bring the Bubble to life still are waiting to be paid and have taken action against the complex. Harriman Brothers Construction of Winterport is owed about $65,000 including interest and costs, according to the company’s attorney, Charles Gilbert.

Jon Haddow, attorney for Yeadon Fabric Domes, which sold the inflatable structure to Madigan, said Yeadon has been working out a repayment deal for the roughly $115,000 it is owed. He said Madigan and Yeadon appeared close to reaching an agreement in December. Then the complex withdrew Haddow said, and now unless settlement talks resume on repayment, a court filing could be imminent.

The town of Hampden has initiated a lien against the complex, stating it was owed $20,884 in back taxes, but it too has sought to work with the facility. Despite past failures to meet deadlines and requirements, earlier this month the town granted the complex a temporary certificate to operate after Madigan installed indoor bathroom facilities and added a modular building, major sticking points for town officials.