WASHINGTON -- Apollo Travel Services sued Travel Centre, a small
agency in Danvers, Mass., that went out of business in December
1996, for $105,511.14 in damages. In a complaint filed in U.S.
District Court in Chicago, Apollo said Travel Centre failed to pay
a $2,250 bill in October 1996, so the CRS terminated its contract
the next month, resulting in the total damages.
The complaint was filed on Dec. 24 "as my Christmas present,"
said Fred Morahan, who ran Travel Centre with his wife for 25 years
before dissolving his corporation. "I was just served with a copy
because I guess they had trouble finding me," said Morahan, now
operating as a one-man independent contractor.
Morahan is the agent who went to war against the General
Services Administration for yanking his only government contract,
an account that covered federal employees in Maine and New
Hampshire, in June 1996. He contended that the GSA's action forced
him to incur extraordinary expenses and wind down his business.
Last Thanksgiving, Morahan won a major skirmish when the GSA's
Board of Contract Appeals ruled that the GSA acted in "bad faith,"
and told him to file by Jan. 23 an itemized list of expenses he
thinks the GSA should pay him.
Morahan said he was puzzled by the timing of Apollo's suit
because he has kept in touch with the CRS about the progress of his
government case, and said he has told Apollo that he will include
the $105,000 among the damages he wants from the GSA. "I'm willing
to turn over whatever I get from the government that's allocated to
Apollo," he said.
Morahan, who refers to himself as "a stubborn Irishman," said he
hired a Washington attorney in 1996 to handle his case against the
GSA. More recently, he hired a retired government auditor to draft
his itemized proposal for damages in the particular format required
by the government. "Now I have to get another lawyer in Illinois to
respond to the court complaint," he said.
Morahan said his former agency started its relationship with
Apollo in 1978. "I was one of the first Apollo agents in the
country. We had good relations, and I don't think this is a very
nice way to treat me."
A Galileo International spokeswoman said the lawsuit and the
government case are unrelated "and the outcome of one doesn't
affect the other."