The Town of Seymour and an Oxford sign company have dropped lawsuits against each other regarding the company’s work at Silvermine Industrial Park and a handful of other spots in town.
The town sued the sign company, “We Can Do That,” last year, alleging the company failed to correct errors on several signs. The company countered with a lawsuit of its own saying Seymour owed it money.
Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller said Monday that an insurance company has agreed to pay a “performance bond” that allowed the town to hire another company to complete the work, so the lawsuits were dropped last October.
Background
The town used a state grant to order 16 signs from the company in January 2013, but the town alleged the signs that went up were riddled with errors — including misspelling the name of Katherine Matthies, a longtime Valley benefactor.
(The spelling was eventually corrected)
In all, the company failed to correct and repost five signs, according to the town’s lawsuit.
The company responded by alleging it was the town that had reneged on the contract.
But after weeks of angry words and legal filings between the town, the sign company, and the sign company’s bond insurance company, the case was resolved.
Settled
The lawsuits were withdrawn last October after the bond insurance firm, ACSTAR Insurance Co., agreed to pay to cover the cost of fixes, Miller said Monday.
A performance bond is, basically, a guarantee from a third party to pay up if a contractor doesn’t perform work agreed to in a contract.
“They settled,” Miller said. “They paid the full amount of their bond.”
The amount was $11,025, Bryan leClerc, the lawyer representing the town in the dispute, said Tuesday (Jan. 13).
Miller said most of the signs have been corrected by another company.
Officials are still working through changes to three signs in the Silvermine Industrial Park.
“Hopefully those will go up in the spring,” Miller said.
The sign company’s phone number and website were out of service Monday.
