CHARLESTON — APTIM Maintenance is suing Liberty One Methanol claiming it breached its contract and failed to pay almost $14 million.
Liberty One is a lessee of real property and the owner of certain improvements on the Altivia Industrial Estate in Institute, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.
APTIM claims Liberty One sought to relocate to the property from Brazil and new units were designed by the defendant's engineer and in December 2019, the defendant hired Bilfinger Westcon to perform mechanical work on the project, but ultimately terminated the relationship in March 2020.
"Defendant selected APTIM as its replacement contractor," the complaint states. "Defendant, as owner, contracted with APTIM, as general contractor, under the certain Lump Sum and Time and Materials Construction Agreement dated September 16, 2020, wherein APTIM agreed to serve as the replacement contractor and construct and complete the Project on a time and materials basis with indirect costs compensated on the basis of the lump sum price."
The contract capped APTIM's liability for liquidated damages to $2 million, according to the suit, and each week, APTIM performed its work in accordance with the contract and submitted weekly applications for payment.
APTIM claims on June 16, 2021, the defendant notified APTIM that it was assessing liquidated damages and subsequently withheld the maximum amount of liquidated damages allowed by the contract on two pay applications.
In addition to withholding the maximum amount of liquidated damages, the defendant also has failed to pay a total of $7.38 million from various pay applications.
APTIM claims the defendant breached its contract and also failed to pay an additional $4.41 million in indirect costs, for a total of $13.79 million.
APTIM is seeking judgment in the amount of $13,794,380.20 with attorney's fees and other costs. It is represented by Russell D. Jessee and Peter J. Raupp of Steptoe & Johnson in Charleston.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 22-C-397