Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The owner of The Spruces Mobile Home Park is seeking to include over 100 park residents as defendants in a previously filed lawsuit regarding the park's future.

In the motion, Morgan Management is asking that Berkshire Superior Court allow "approximately" 109 people who occupied about 87 homes in the park to be added to the complaint as individual defendants or as a class defendant.

The 87 homes, which have been without electricity since Tropical Storm Irene, are on Bachand Avenue, Emerald and Nutmeg lanes, and Riverside and Higgins drives, according to the Nov. 16 motion filed by attorney Robert Kraus on behalf of Morgan Management.

The electrical panels and systems serving those homes were destroyed by flooding during the Aug. 28 storm. Electricity has been restored to homes on the east side of the park with the exception of Riverside Drive.

"The plaintiffs are seeking to amend their complaint to add these individual parties for purposes on encompassing them within the scope of any orders this honorable court might issue," the motion said.

This motion is the latest in a series of court filings made on behalf of the Pittsford, N.Y.company.

The first, which was made on Oct. 18, asked for court assistance in determining the future of the park, including whether -- and to what extent -- the outcome of Tropical Storm Irene has rendered The Spruces "discontinued."

The

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second filing, which was made on Nov. 15, was an emergency motion requesting a judge order Williamstown officials to remove park residents living in condemned homes in the park. It also asked that owners of currently condemned homes in the park be ordered to contact Morgan Management within 30 days of their intentions for the structures.

That motion is scheduled to be heard at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 13 in Berkshire Superior Court.

Certain park residents in the affected areas have obtained orders from Housing Court to have the electricity to their homes restored, which is "tedious, impracticable and uneconomical," according to Morgan's most recent motion.

"Moreover, if individuals ...come in piecemeal, which [is] presently being done, the park will have to undo much of the work that it has already performed at further expense," the motion stated.

So far, Morgan Management has spent $30,831.23 to restore electricity to the homes whose owners have gotten court orders, Regional Property Manager Richard Purcelli said in an affidavit included in the court documents.

Efforts to reach Morgan Management and Kraus on Friday were unsuccessful.

If the court allows residents to be included as defendants in the lawsuit, they will join the state Attorney General's Office and the Town of Williamstown.

To reach Meghan Foley,
email mfoley@thetranscript.com.