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DOVER - A well-known and sometimes controversial Rochester physician with a lifelong penchant for collectible cars is in Strafford County Superior Court this week suing an auction company over what he feels was their shoddy work overseeing a 2012 auction of vintage cars, motorcycles and other collectibles netted far less than what he expected.
Dr. Terry Bennett, who runs the Quick Care Clinic on South Main Street, is seeking $1.6 million in damages against Auctions America by RM, Inc. in a bench trial presided over by Strafford County Superior Court Judge Mark E. Howard.
On Thursday the 79-year-old Bennett testified that in the summer of 2012 doctors diagnosed him with cancer and told him he had 90 days to live, so he wanted to quickly find an auctions company that could service a broad range of collectibles, from vintage race and fancy cars, to motorcycles and bicycles to stained glass and antique signs.
When a friend pointed him to RM Auctions, he said he went to one of their events and was very impressed.
He said he discussed RM doing his auction and was pleased with what they said, noting that he wanted to quickly liquidate much of his estate to help his family expecting his death was imminent.
"I was desperate and happy with what they said," he testified
Then he said he was told Auctions American - not RM - would be doing the auction but the service would be the same.
"I was lulled into a sense of security," he said.
However, as the Sept. 21-22, 2012, auction drew near he realized the advertising was subpar and not attracting world-class collectors that he felt his items deserved to get the best price.
The recurring argument during direct examination by his attorney, Peter McGrath of Concord, was that Auctions America didn't provide the adequate provenance, or lineage, of his collectible cars to draw the high rollers that would produce a better bottom line.
The auctions were all absolute, meaning there was no minimum amount required.
To buttress their argument, McGrath produced an advertisement from a similar auction Bennett had in 1991 in which he raked in some $4.5 million the majority of which went to his alma mater, Harvard Medical School, to help defray tuition costs for low-income students.
Under questioning from McGrath, Bennett complained that unlike the 1991 auction, the advertised auction items in 2012 were, "mislabeled, inaccurate and incomplete."
"Did they have a teaser brochure?" McGrath asked.
"It didn't tease me," Bennett quipped.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing Auctions America, Nathan R Fennessy, brought out during questioning of Russell Abbott, the lead state investigator in the case, that the state's own Board of Auctioneers agreed to make no finding over Bennett's claims of incompetence.
The bench trial continues today in Strafford County Superior Court, but is not expected to conclude till later this fall after two additional witnesses unavailable this week can testify.
Bennett formerly practiced medicine in Saudi Arabia where decades ago he was a personal physician for members of the Bin Laden clan in which Osama Bin Laden was a member as well as many other wealthy sheiks and oil tycoons. At the time he was treating the Bin Laden family they were part of one of the biggest construction companies in the Mideast.
Bennett has also had his share of controversy, including a spring 2012 court battle over rights to former patients which he won after he split with PainCare of Somersworth; and in 2005 for allegedly chiding an obese woman, "If your husband died, who would want you?"
A jovial, relaxed Bennett said on Thursday after his chilling diagnosis five years ago he's counting his blessing no matter what the outcome of the trial.
"I'm still here," he grinned.
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