Defunct countertops shop quiet on closure
As lawsuits continue to pile up against Rock Tops, a defunct Macomb County countertops company, its lawyers refuse to say what prompted the abrupt closure of its 15 offices, leaving customers and vendors out more than a million dollars.
On Monday, lawyers are set to appear in Macomb County Circuit Court for a show-cause hearing in one of three lawsuits — this one filed by Farmington Hills-based Dwyer Marble and Stones, which claims Rock Tops never paid for nearly $900,000 in granite and marble.
Next week, lawyers for GranQuartz are to appear in court to allege they were swindled out of more than $300,000.
“They cheated my clients, and they intended to do so when they did it,” said Norman Yatooma, a Birmingham lawyer representing GranQuartz. “They wrote bad checks for my clients’ equipment and then literally left town.”
Yatooma said his law firm tracked down Rock Tops’ owners — Robert Gasiorowski and Robert Thiede — in part because the wife of one of the men wrote about her whereabouts on a friend’s Facebook page.
“When you’ve cheated everybody and realize the hammers of hell are after you, you flee,” Yatooma said.
Jason Ruff, one of Rock Tops’ lawyers, refused to address the complaints leveled by customers and vendors when contacted Friday.
Nor would he say whether he or any other of Rock Tops’ Bloomfield Hills-based lawyers plan to appear for Monday’s hearing, which is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. before Judge Peter Maceroni.
“There’s pending litigation,” he said. “I have no comment.”
County prosecutors are weighing whether there was criminal intent behind the nonpayments or if this was simply a case of a business going under in a rocky economy, said Macomb County Sheriff’s Capt. Tony Wickersham, whose department has fielded multiple complaints about the company.
Wickersham said that for criminal action to be taken, officials have to prove that the company, which closed its doors in December, took money with no intention of delivering the product.
The latest suit, filed Jan. 16, alleges breach of a lease.
Benjamin Aloia, who represents Prospect Investments, said that Rock Tops’ co-owners entered into a 52-month lease in January 2008.
The company quit paying the approximately $6,000-a-month rent in December and has yet to officially communicate with the landlords, Aloia said.
He said his clients are simultaneously following court rules to have Rock Tops evicted from the Macomb Township building.
GranQuartz has filed an injunction prohibiting Rock Tops from disposing of the saws, diamond blades and other high-dollar equipment it says Rock Tops’ owners stole.
The next hearing in that case is Feb. 5.
