Last winter, Ray King thought his two-and-a-half year ordeal was close to being over.

The accomplished Philadelphia-based sculptor had just received a settlement for $1.1 million for damage to the building that houses his design and fabrication studio at 835 N. Third Street in Northern Liberties. The damage resulted from a demolition contractor who began improperly tearing down a building next door in June 2002. Both buildings were once part of the Ortlieb's Brewery complex and had shared steel beams that the contractor failed to sever before beginning his work. [News, "Demo Dust-Up Heats Up," Ralph Cipriano, June 3, 2004].

After King received his money in payments from two separate insurance companies in January and February of 2005, just one issue remained: In order to fix the cracks, bulges and missing sections of brick in the four-story wall on his building's north side, mason workers needed the property owner next door to remove its partially demolished building and associated debris so they could set up scaffolding. (Demolition had been halted by the city in 2002 amidst fears of further damage to King's wall.)

Getting that done, however, would prove difficult, after the building's owner, a developer known as Liberty Homes Philadelphia, indicated that it expected King to pay for the next-door cleanup with his settlement money. That led King to take Liberty Homes, a company managed and partly owned by local mega-developer Bart Blatstein, back to court last August—a place where the issue still remains today.

The sticking point between King (whose wife—Deborah Scoblionkov—has freelanced for City Paper) and the developer was a pair of settlement agreements circulated around the same time King's lawsuit was being settled out of court early last year. An agreement first circulated by King's lawyer, which Liberty Homes did not sign and say they contested, set up a step-by-step process for repairs to take place.

First, King would install internal bracing to shore up his wall as recommended by engineers, because support provided by the partially demolished building was believed to be keeping his wall from crumbling. Then, Liberty Homes would remove the remains of its building and other associated debris on its property within two months so workers could access King's wall.

"We thought we had resolved this in the spring of last year with the hope and the expectation that [King] could get things completed while [he] had the opportunity of good weather," said King's attorney, Thomas Gregory.

After King completed installing a lattice-style support system of massive wooden beams on all four floors of his building last June, his attorney notified Liberty Homes that the work was done. When two months passed without a response from Liberty Homes, and the building's remains still stood next door, King's attorney filed a motion with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas to enforce the settlement.

In a September response to that motion, however, Liberty Homes maintained it had never agreed to the settlement King's lawyer circulated, and that a separate one it had distributed was valid. (It required King to use part of his settlement, which included compensation for his art studio's lost business.)

When contacted last week, Liberty Homes declined to comment directly on a case pending before the courts. In a statement, however, the company said it was "taking proactive steps to resolve" the dispute.

In a scathing reply, Gregory filed a response with the court that said it was "bordering on the absurd" that money received to repair damages to King's building would pay to remove material from Liberty Homes' property.

If King had agreed, it would "constitute insurance fraud," Gregory wrote. "Such a scheme could not be more fraught with the potential for fraud, that an insured would concoct a manner to collect, for itself, recovery for its own wrongful conduct."

Liberty Homes asked the court to strike the response from the record, calling the claims "unfounded and defamatory".

With both sides unable to reach an agreement, the court late last year directed both to appear before a mediator. An initial meeting held on Monday brought no resolution.

However, state officials say Liberty Homes has begun some groundwork. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the developer began filing last month for a state demolition permit. (There was no record of a filing for the necessary city permit, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections.) King's attorney said he has received no indication that Liberty Homes was backing down.

"King didn't do anything to create the harm," Gregory said. "Should he really have to wait nearly four years to get his building fixed? I wouldn't think so."