Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and his husband James Ready have sued a Massachusetts contractor over the construction of their $350,000 beach house in Wells.
The couple claims in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland that Shaun Madden Contracting of Burlington walked off the job in May after completing a little over $208,000 worth of the work. Frank was a 16-term member of the U.S. House from Massachusetts and became the first member of Congress to come out as gay in 1987. He has been living in Maine part-time since leaving Congress in 2013.
Frank and Ready allege that they paid for the construction up front and that Madden has returned just $50,000 of what they are owed. The couple claim that the contractor owes them nearly $92,000 of the original payment and another $31,656 paid to correct Madden’s siting of the house too close to