Thanks to the efforts of AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE), in October 2007 the D.C. Superior Court issued a judgment against an unscrupulous home contractor who has taken more than $80,000 from an elderly Washington, D.C. resident. One of the largest awards secured on behalf of an LCE client, this is aslo one of the largest awards ever granted on a home-improvement scam case in the District of Columbia.

 

Fundamental to winning the case was the work of LCE Legal Aid Attorney Matthew Brinegar--a young attorney who joined the LCE staff in January 2006 and has been practicing law for three years--assisted by several members of the LCE legal team, including Amy Mix, supervisory attorney for LCE’s Consumer Protection & Financial Abuse Unit, who helped with overall case strategy. Laura Fentonmiller, an attorney with the Washington office of Constantine Cannon, acted as a pro bono co-counsel on the case.

 

 

The contractor was hired to completely renovate the senior’s basement. However, only 20% of the “improvements” to the basement were even attempted, and the minimal work that was performed fell disastrously below the most basic requirements of the D.C. Building Code. The home owner, a disabled woman in her 80’s who has lived in her house since the 1950’s, had taken out a reverse mortgage in order to complete the renovations so she could offer the renovated basement as a rental unit to supplement her limited income.

 

Following repeated efforts to get the contractor to complete the services he had been paid to do, in late 2006 the elderly woman called the LCE “Legal Hotline” seeking assistance. After several conversations with the client, Attorney Brinegar sued the contractor under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures act to force him to return the client’s funds.

 

While conducting research into the case, Attorney Brinegar learned that this contractor had a long history of fraud and deception against unsuspecting home owners and had been sued several times. Unfortunately, the contractor previously escaped justice on each previous occasion through evasion and by invoking bankruptcy protection.

 

After months of negotiation, the contractor agreed to settle the matter by fixing the client’s house. This arrangement was contingent upon the contractor paying for a comprehensive home inspection before and after the work. After months of stalling, however, the contractor declared that he would not fix the senior’s home.

 

 

LCE promptly reinstated the lawsuit, which resulted in an outstanding ruling issued on Oct. 9: treble damages for violation of the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act, with a grand total of $228,000 in money damages, plus related attorney fees and the possibility of an additional award of punitive damages due to the egregious nature of the contractor’s misconduct.