MILLINOCKET – Great Northern Paper Co. officials on Thursday said they were shocked at the filing of a lawsuit by a Quebec engineering firm over services that the paper company considered deficient.

Last week, Genivel-BPR Inc. of Montreal filed a lawsuit against Great Northern charging the paper company had breached its contract by not paying $684,252 for services related to the rebuilding of the largest paper machine in the Millinocket paper mill. The lawsuit, which seeks payment plus interest, was filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

“We were surprised to learn that the issue had got to this point since BPR had not told us that they were going to act and file a claim in court,” said Brian Stetson, GNP’s manager of governmental affairs. “We still at this moment have not been provided with a copy of their filing by BPR.” Stetson and GNP President Eldon Doody both are currently out of the country.

“We had identified to them in writing deficiencies in their work performance in a claim for approximately an amount equal to the claim they filed in court,” said Stetson. “We thought we were in the process of working through a resolution of our issues with them when they surprised us with the filing, which they have yet to share with us.”

Stetson said the mutually agreed upon contract between GNP and BPR specifies that issues like this would be resolved through arbitration. “Their action in and of itself is indicative of a deficiency in the performance of their contract,” he said. “They have acted unilaterally and without warning and filed a suit demanding payment for monies owed knowing we had identified to them deficiencies in their work and were attempting to resolve with them those issues prior to final payment.”

Jean Lemay, vice president of marketing at BPR’s corporate office in Quebec City, on Thursday declined to comment saying the company’s policy is not to comment about clients or their projects. He said the company’s lawsuit outlined everything the company wanted to say at this point.

The lawsuit referred to the dispute between the two companies, but BPR claims their differences were resolved and a final payment figure was mutually agreed upon. It was when the deadlines for payments on that figure passed that BPR filed the suit, it claims.