A Boothbay man’s lawsuit seeking 51-percent ownership in the parent business for McSeagull’s restaurant in Boothbay Harbor has had a change of venue.

Ralph Smith’s case was moved June 18 from Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset to the state Business and Consumer Court in Portland, according to the two courts’ staff and papers on file at the courthouse in Wiscasset.

The civil case also includes a series of counterclaims filed by the defendants, McSeagull’s parent company Gone Skiing and shareholders Ronald Stoddard and Gail Ogilvie.

Smith’s suit, filed in January, claims Stoddard breached a deal that would have made Smith 51-percent owner of Gone Skiing; Smith’s suit asks the court to name him 51-percent owner. The defendants are opposing his request and have raised their own claims regarding Smith’s business conduct when he was managing the restaurant.

The change of venue to the business court was agreed on by all the parties in the case, Stoddard’s lawyer David Lipman said June 19.

“This case has a certain complexity, and everybody agreed that it would be better served in the business court,” Lipman said in Friday’s telephone interview. Among the advantages of the business court is that parties can file documents electronically, helping a case move forward more quickly than in the county court, he said.

“The business court is designed for just these sorts of disputes,” involving ownership, Smith’s attorney George Dilworth said June 19. “And it’s more efficient.”

Gone Skiing’s attorney and Ogilvie, who has represented herself in the case, did not immediately return messages.

Dilworth’s application for the change in courts estimates that a trial in the case would take three days. It has not been determined if a jury or a judge would hear the trial, according to the June 11 application.