Construction boss Dennis Correia paid out $600,000 in an out-of-court settlement that allowed him to hire three staff from a subcontractor he fired from the Dockyard project.

John Amenta, Rich Preli and Julius (Buddy) McIntosh all joined Correia Construction early this year after Norwalk Marine International had been terminated by the Bermudian company.

NMI boss Louis (Skip) Gardella took legal action in the US against the three Americans, on the grounds that they had breached their contracts with his company.

After Mr. Gardella had secured a court date for February, Mr. Correia paid a $600,000 out-of-court settlement on behalf of the men, so he could employ them, this newspaper has learned.

In 2007 the trio started working on the project whose costs have soared from an initially contracted $39 million to $60 million.

Jane Correia, contracts administrator of Correia Construction, said the settlement was not costed to the project. "We paid for it," she said. "We deliberately didn't pay him out of the project because we felt it didn't have anything to do with the project. It came out of a Correia Construction account."

Mr. Amenta had been with NMI for several years and was a general superintendent with the Connecticut firm, while Mr. Preli was a project manager and Mr. McIntosh an assistant superintendent.

Mr. Gardella claimed that even though NMI's contracted task was primarily to drive piles, his staff had become more broadly involved with the project in management tasks including bookkeeping.

He believes that Mr. Correia paid out the money because he was reliant on the three men's expertise to finish off the Dockyard job.

Mr. Correia rejected that notion, saying his company had been driving piles at numerous marine construction projects in Bermuda and elsewhere since 1972, and had the necessary expertise for the Dockyard job.