The latest act in a nine-year battle between Tom Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson and a high-end contractor played out before the Idaho Supreme Court Friday. The case revolves around the couple's sprawling Sun Valley-area home, built by Storey Construction starting in 2000. Hanks and Wilson say the company's shoddy workmanship left them out more than $2 million. The company, meanwhile, contends the couple is just out for revenge because they lost an earlier arbitration over the work. Hanks, whose character in the 1986 movie “The Money Pit” dealt with a decaying house, didn't attend the hearing, but Wilson, also a film producer and actress, was in the courtroom. “We never expected it would come to something like this,” Wilson said. “The case began in 2000, when Hanks and Wilson, through their Sun Valley Trust, hired Storey Construction to build a high-end villa in the remote but tony central Idaho resort town. But there was a dispute over payment, and in 2002 Storey Construction filed a demand for arbitration. Hanks and Wilson, meanwhile, filed a counterclaim, contending the company did substandard and defective work on the complex, which includes the main residence and three guest cottages. Storey won the arbitration in 2004, and the counterclaim was tossed. Hanks and Wilson paid the company $1.85 million for their contract balance, interest and legal fees.
