Traveler’s suing Spinosa for $12 million

Traveler’s Surety and Casualty Company of America is suing developer Tommy Spinosa for $12 million. The company guaranteed performance and payment bonds both for the construction of Perkins Rowe and for a St. Tammany Parish apartment complex also developed by Spinosa. In a lawsuit filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Traveler’s alleges that Spinosa and his now-defunct Echelon Construction Company defaulted on an indemnity agreement he signed in January 2006 guaranteeing the insurance giant against any loss it might incur as a result of bonding the two projects. The suit alleges that, in fact, Traveler’s has incurred more than $5 million in losses to date from paying claims to more than 20 vendors and subcontractors who did work on Perkins Rowe and the Chenier Apartments in Mandeville but were never paid by Spinosa or Echelon. The suit alleges an additional 25 claims from subcontractors and vendors on the two projects are still pending, and that the insurance company’s total potential loss, including attorneys’ fees, is $12 million. The suit asks the court to require Spinosa to pay that amount and to “exonerate Traveler’s from all liabilities, losses and expenses.” Spinosa’s office did not return a call seeking comment on the suit. Click here to read the full story.—Stephanie Riegel