TOM HANKS - HANKS + WILSON SUED AGAIN BY FORMER CONTRACTOR

TOM HANKS and his actress wife RITA WILSON have been hit with more legal action by their former contractor, in a dispute over work carried out on the stars' Idaho home more than five years ago. Building firm Storey Construction Inc. has been locked in a bitter legal battle with the couple over unpaid bills for building their Sun Valley house between 2000 and 2002. Hanks and Wilson refused to pay up for what they claimed was "substandard and defective work", and when the contractor entered arbitration in 2003, the Hollywood couple filed a countersuit, asking for $800,000 (GBP400,000) in compensation for the allegedly unacceptable work. But the actors' suit was thrown out of court and they were ordered to pay up more than $1.2 million (GBP600,000). However, they have since refiled for arbitration, upping their compensation claim to $2.5 million (GBP1.25 million). But on Friday (21Dec07), Storey Construction filed a countersuit, accusing them of being "motivated by revenge" following the success of the firm's previous arbitration ruling. The new legal documents also describe Wilson's "bizarre conduct" at the 2003 arbitration hearing, during which she "leaped from the witness stand and started screaming hysterically" before she "stormed out of the hearing room", reports TMZ.com. The company is asking a judge to dismiss the Hanks' new compensation claim.