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A Knox County judge has ordered two former Mainers and now-defunct contractors at Union to pay $744,253 to former customers.
Judge Bruce Maloney handed down his decision on September 22 and the appeal window passed last week. A lawsuit was filed in the Knox County Register of Deeds last Friday by Malcolm and Elizabeth Stewart and their company, which failed to negotiate a contract with Castle Builders.
The judge barred the couple and the company from soliciting clients as general contractors.
Malcolm and Elizabeth Stewart
The Stewarts must pay the sum to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which will disburse any money received to victims. The ruling, however, does not guarantee any money to be recovered from the Stewarts.
The state won a default judgment on Aug. 23, the first day of the civil trial, after the couple waived an appeal.
In the year In August 2021, a $359,350 attachment was placed on the couple’s property in Washington Township, including 15 acres of land and buildings valued at $285,171.
In the United States Bankruptcy Court case in March, a claim of only $5,000 was settled and nearly $40,000 in administrative fees were paid. The initial claims filed in the bankruptcy case totaled more than $1.1 million, including taxes and back wages. There were 177 creditors listed in their bankruptcy filing, and most of them were former clients of Castle Builders. Former employees, suppliers and the government are also listed as creditors.
Additionally, Malcolm Stewart was indicted by a Knox County Grand Jury in March 2021 on two counts of theft. He pleaded not guilty in May 2021 and will continue on bail.
The next court hearing in the case is Jan. 20 in Knox County Court. Stewart’s attorney is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed, and for the case to be moved out of Knox County if it goes to trial, due to extensive pretrial notice.
A Canadian citizen with a US permanent resident card, Stewart now lives in Pelzer, South Carolina. He signed a Maine pre-trial agreement and is to have no contact with the alleged victims. He also had to surrender his passport.
On April 6, 2010, the Attorney General’s Office recommended that Stewart be sentenced to three years in prison if convicted, after all but five years were suspended.
The crimes allegedly occurred between April 2018 and September 2019 in Knox, Waldo, Hancock, Kennebec, Lincoln and Somerset counties.
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