Stonington ― Though the town is no longer a party in a lawsuit alleging bias and favoritism in the bidding process for a bridge project, it may still face further action by a woman-owned construction firm.

“We’re exploring alternative claims against the town,” Thomas Banas, attorney for Old Colony Construction, LLC of Clinton, said on Friday.

As part of a broader lawsuit filed in March 2023, Old Colony, owned by Michelle Neri, requested a temporary injunction to stop the town from moving forward on a project to repair the South Anguilla Road bridge, but the request became moot when the project was completed before the case could be litigated.

New London Superior Court Judge Angelica Papastavros approved a request by Old Colony to dismiss the claim against the town on Thursday. The rest of the suit is pending.

In late 2022, the town awarded the contract to Suchocki & Son of Preston, the second lowest bidder on the project, for $16,000 more than the $322,334 bid from Old Colony.

The remaining portions of the ongoing lawsuit allege that Wengell, McDonnell, & Costello Inc., a Newington engineering firm hired by the town to do design work and evaluate bids for the project, demonstrated bias against Old Colony, undermined the competitive bidding process and violated state law in evaluating bids.

“Old Colony commenced the underlying action to protect the integrity of the public bidding process, which Old Colony believes has been undermined by the actions of the Town and its engineer, Wengell, McDonnell & Costello, Inc.,” said Banas.

The lawsuit points to two differing estimates for site management the town received from WMC.

In documents associated with the suit, WMC provided a $49,100 estimate in Nov 2022, but in a letter to the town eleven days later, revised its estimate to $115,360, saying it anticipated extra costs for project management if Old Colony was awarded the project.

Suchocki, who is also named in the lawsuit, completed work on the bridge late last year at a cost of $358,655. The town also paid WMC $49,100 for construction management of the project. The claims in the suit do not allege wrongdoing by Suchocki.

In a January decision on a town request to dismiss the claim against it, the court said that evidence presented by Old Colony indicated that, through its actions, WMC may have undermined, or at least called the integrity of the bidding process into question.

The court pointed to evidence that WMC told the town it would double its fee if Old Colony was awarded the contract. It said that increase essentially raised the cost of Old Colony’s bid and that Old Colony had no way of knowing that WMC fees would contribute to the award decision.

The decision also noted that WMC had based the increase on conversations with prior customers, did not contact references provided by Old Colony, and the town and WMC “took no steps to evaluate the experience, skill and business standing of Suchocki before awarding Suchocki the project.”

Banas said that in denying the town’s motion to dismiss the case, Judge James Spallone found that Old Colony showed evidence of acts by WMC that undermined the bidding process. Banas said these actions resulted in harm to not only Old Colony, but taxpayers who had to pay the higher cost of fixing the bridge.

A deposition of Jay Costello, president of WMC, indicates that the company has worked with the town and Suchocki in the past.

Attorneys for WMC did not respond to requests for comment on the company’s defense against the claims, but Costello said at a late 2022 Board of Finance meeting that he called multiple municipalities that had hired Old Colony to do similar bridge work over the past four to five years.

He said that the five municipalities that returned his calls, reported a number of issues that drove up costs, including a large number of change orders, higher than typical administrative costs and numerous requests for information.

But in a 2022 report for the town, WMC said references provided by Old Colony all confirmed that its was of acceptable quality.

During a deposition, WMC Vice President Stephen McDonnell acknowledged that some of unsatisfactory work it cited by Old Colony dated back as far as 2006.

In a memo to the board, Town Engineer Christopher Greenlaw wrote that Old Colony “has a performance history of extended project timelines and schedules that would drive increases for construction, admin[istration], and inspection at a minimum.”

He also said the town’s bid documents state that it reserves the right to not select the lowest bid.

When asked by board members if he had confirmed any of the claims in the WMC report, Greenlaw said he had spoken with a municipality and corroborated the information.