The Haines Borough has failed to come to an out-of-court agreement with former Lutak Dock contractor Turnagain Marine. A previously-paused lawsuit filed by the contractor against the borough last year will now resume.
Turnagain filed suit almost exactly a year ago, on Nov. 11, 2024, alleging unreasonable delays and unpaid invoices by the borough in the dock rebuild. The borough disputed those claims and asked a judge to pause the litigation in favor of mediation — an out-of-court process in which the two parties would negotiate toward a mutually-agreeable settlement. The borough pointed to language in the contract between the two parties requiring mediation as a first dispute resolution step before proceeding to a lawsuit.
A judge ruled in favor of requiring mediation earlier this year, and a borough team traveled to Anchorage last week for the in-person negotiations.
The borough’s negotiating team was made up of borough manager Alekka Fullerton, and assembly members Gabe Thomas and Mark Smith.
The three of them, along with the borough’s attorney, met with Turnagain for roughly five hours, Fullerton said, before ending mediation. Fullerton would not say what the major points of disagreement in the negotiation were.
With mediation unsuccessful, Turnagain’s lawsuit against the borough will now resume. Turnagain does not name a specific amount of money claimed in the lawsuit, instead seeking “compensatory damages, the exact amount to be proven at trial….”
Some of its alleged damages likely stem from $9.3 million in steel that Turnagain purchased for the dock project. The borough maintains it does not have to compensate Turnagain for those steel costs, and says Turnagain purchased the steel without ever receiving necessary approval from either the borough or the federal agency funding much of the project.
Fullerton said there was no set start date or timeline for the impending litigation.