Hermitage didn't follow through on deal, attorney says

WILMINGTON- An attorney for a defendant in Brattleboro Savings and Loan's foreclosure suit on the Brook Bound Inn property says James Barnes and the Hermitage failed to live up to a sales agreement with his client.

Last week, Brattleboro Savings and Loan filed the foreclosure complaint on the Brook Bound, naming Christopher “Kip” Adams as the mortgage holder, 447 HR Brook Bound LLC as the owner, and the James L. McGovern III Trust as a secondary mortgage holder. According to the complaint, Adams sold the property to 447 HR Brook Bound in 2015 and “failed to pay the (mortgage) in full at the time of the transfer as required.” The complaint claims the mortgage, originally for $300,000, is in default with a balance due of $334,445.95 plus other fees and expenses.

A property transfer tax return on file at the Wilmington Town Clerk's Office indicates that the total price paid by 447 HR Brook Bound LLC for the property in 2015 was $650,000.

John Stasny, who represents Adams, said his client did not receive the full purchase amount. “My client only received a portion of the sales proceeds, and the rest was supposed to go to Brattleboro Savings and Loan and the other mortgagee (James L. McGovern III Trust),” Stasny said. “But that didn't happen.”
Stasny said Adams initially negotiated the deal with James Barnes and the Hermitage Inn Real Estate Holding Company. At the last minute a new Hermitage-connected entity, 447 HR Brook Bound, was substituted. But Stasny says the deal was the same, and still included the payoff of existing mortgages. “And apparently now they're claiming they were supposed to carry on with payments on the mortgages,” Stasny said.
But no payoff or payments occurred, according to Stasny and Brattleboro Savings and Loan. “My client never got $650,000, and was never relieved of the (mortgage) liability,” Stasny said. “He wants to know where the rest of his money went.”

Stasny and Adams have not filed an answer to the lawsuit yet, and Stasny says a decision on whether to file a cross-claim against 447 HR Brook Bound or Barnes and the Hermitage hasn't been made yet. “It depends on what further investigation shows, but it's a possibility.”

The Deerfield Valley News

797 VT Route 100 North
Wilmington, VT 05363

Phone: 802-464-3388
Fax: 802-464-7255

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