Court Allows Petricca to Collect Rent From Mall Tenants

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Judge Paul Smyth has allowed Petricca Construction to recoup some $72,000 of credits tenants owe to the Berkshire Mall.

Petricca is attempting to essentially garnish the mall owner's wages to the tune of $248,997 owed to the company for snow removal. Petricca had sued and won the case against Berkshire Mall Realty Holdings over work performed last winter. 

The owners never paid the Berkshire Superior Court judgement and, in November, Petricca started a trustee process. The court summonsed 19 stores at the Berkshire Mall to disclose what they owed in credits to the mall and, one by one, the majority of the stores agreed to withhold rent or other payments until the court made a judgement on the process.

On Wednesday, Smyth approved a motion to charge the Palace Hair Design, His and Hers Inc, Regal Cinemas, Sears Roebuck and Co., Solomon's Furniture, and Spencer Gifts amounts the companies disclosed owing to the mall owners.

The collection, however, is only part of what is owed to Petricca. In seeking the ex parte trustee process, Petricca's attorneys wrote there "is a clear danger that the defendant, if notified in advance of the motion for approval of the trustee process, will attempt to divert or conceal, or otherwise place out of reach the funds in the hands and possession of the trustee sought by this attachment."

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