REAL ESTATE : Ex-Baldwin Official Files Arbitration Action Against Firm

Another former top executive of Baldwin Builders has begun legal wranglings with the beleaguered Newport Beach home builder. Former Orange County division President Geoff Fearns, who resigned from the company in November, has filed an arbitration action against Baldwin. The action accuses the company’s owners of breach of contract, forced resignation and fraud. Fearns is seeking mediation through Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, a statewide organization headquartered in Orange, because of a provision in his former contract requiring certain disputes to be arbitrated.

Baldwin officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

His action comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Robert B. Burns, formerly a corporate vice president and head of Baldwin’s Los Angeles-Ventura division. Burns’ suit, filed Jan. 25 in Los Angeles Superior Court, is seeking at least $35 million in damages for fraud and breach of contract from the company and its owners, James and Alfred Baldwin.

Burns and Fearns are two of three division presidents who have left the company in the last two months. The third, San Diego division President Greg Smith, was terminated, according to Burns’ suit. The suit alleges the Baldwins attempted to engage Fearns and Smith in a scheme to avoid federal income tax payments in 1993, and intentionally failed to disclose Burns’ partnership agreement to investors when the company sold $155 million in bonds last year.