Court fight that symbolizes builders’ political power drags on for Mansfield couple

The following was reprinted from The Dallas Morning News at www.dallasnews.com.

by Wayne Slater

03:12 PM CST on Monday, December 15, 2008

AUSTIN — For Bob and Jane Cull, it’s another year, another courtroom.

Actually, it’s back to the same courtroom in Fort Worth where they began their battle with homebuilder Bob Perry nearly a decade ago.

Their story is simple: The Culls say Mr. Perry’s company built a defective house, with a broken foundation and cracked walls. When the company failed to fix it, the couple took their case to arbitration and won a $800,000 award.

But Perry Homes refused to pay it, saying the couple had waived their legal rights to arbitration. The company lost in the lower courts, but eventually won in the Texas Supreme Court, which vacated the award and sent the case back to trial court.

The Culls are retirement age. Bob has had some health problems and Jane has returned to work to pay the bills.

“This is a start-over,” she said the other day from her home in Mansfield. “It’s get your checkbook out again. It’s a new day, a new case. Here we go again.”

To some, the case has become symbolic of the disadvantage that an average homeowner faces in going up against a builder with deep pockets. After the Culls commenced their fight, Mr. Perry spearheaded creation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission, which required that all future homeowners seek relief there first before taking a homebuilder to court or arbitration.

But the state Sunset Commission, which evaluates state agencies for effectiveness, may recommend that lawmakers abolish the construction commission — a staff report concluded that it is little more than a bureaucratic speed bump protecting homebuilders.

DMN File
Bob and Jane Cull of Mansfield have been locked in a costly legal battle with homebuilder Bob Perry for nearly a decade. “It was formed because of our case,” said Ms. Cull. “We were able to get further than they needed us to.”

Mr. Cull will be at the state Capitol on Tuesday to support closing the agency, even though it won’t help their case. They remain locked in a court fight, and in that kind of battle of checkbooks, Perry Homes has the advantage.

Bob Perry is a billionaire and the most prolific campaign contributor in Texas. He’s given more money than anyone else to Republican Gov. Rick Perry (no relation), who supported creation of the construction commission.

The homebuilder has also contributed more than $1.2 million to Attorney General Greg Abbott, who issued an opinion blocking the comptroller from investigating homeowner complaints. An aide says the attorney general was just interpreting existing law.

And he has given money to every member of the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor in the Cull case.

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Link: Read the Sunset Commission report
Anthony Holm, who represents Mr. Perry, said the homebuilder is simply pursuing his legal rights.

“We look forward to our day in court,” said Mr. Holm.

The homebuilder contends the Culls lost their right to arbitration because they initially went to court, then decided on arbitration before the case went to trial. The Culls feared a long legal battle against a homebuilder with deep pockets, and decided to accept the outcome of binding arbitration, whatever it was.

As it turned out, Mr. Perry didn’t accept it. And they’ve been in court ever since.

“We have invested tens of thousands of dollars in trying to get Perry Homes to live up to their responsibility,” said Mr. Cull. “Because of what the Texas Supreme Court did to us, we are faced with having to come up with thousands more in an ongoing legal battle to achieve an equitable settlement.”

Meanwhile, the Culls are having another Christmas in a house that’s not fixed and they can’t sell it — with the prospect of still more years of legal wrangling ahead.

“Your home is supposed to be a refuge. But it’s a place that’s made us insecure, not secure,” she said. “The very idea that a big builder could build a home and just run away …”

~ by ebragg on December 16, 2008.