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Lehman Sept 1
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$14 Million Case For Sinking Soil Under House
Aug 31, 2015 | The Daily Sentinel
By Dennis Webb
...Residents at the Ironbridge subdivision brought the legal action against defendants including a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, the company that went bankrupt in 2008. After a three-and-a-half-week trial, a six-person jury in Glenwood Springs recently awarded 20 homeowners a total of more than $6.7 million...
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Glenwood Springs
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$14 Million Case For Sinking Soil Under House
Aug 31, 2015 | The Daily Sentinel
By Dennis Webb
Homeowners at a golf course subdivision south of Glenwood Springs are waiting to see if a judge upholds jury and arbitrator awards topping $14 million involving defects related to the construction of homes on sinking soils.
The homes at the Ironbridge golf course subdivision were built on evaporite, a salt-laden soil that also has been linked with sinkholes and subsidence in other parts of western Colorado.
Residents at the Ironbridge subdivision brought the legal action against defendants including a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, the company that went bankrupt in 2008. After a three-and-a-half-week trial, a six-person jury in Glenwood Springs recently awarded 20 homeowners a total of more than $6.7 million. It assigned 100 percent responsibility to the Lehman Brothers subsidiary, LB Rose Ranch LLC, which was the developer of the homes.
...Collecting the jury award if upheld by Boyd is made more challenging because of the bankruptcy of both Lehman Brothers and the subsidiary involved. Perczak said collection efforts will target the Lehman Brothers insurer, and she believes the insurance had no exclusion for soil subsidence and provides coverage. However, collecting likely will require a lawsuit against the insurer and more waiting for homeowners.
“It takes a long time and they really have to have a lot of patience,” she said.
She noted that bankruptcy isn’t a factor in the case of any of the defendants in the arbitration case.
The arbitrator also found that the defendants owe about $1.4 million in attorney fees and more than $660,000 in legal costs in the arbitration case. Perczak said there will be a secondary hearing on costs and fees in the case that went to a jury.
The jury determined that LB Rose Ranch, those involved in the construction, and the engineering company Hepworth-Pawlak Geotechnical all engaged in wrongful conduct involving Ironbridge. But it held the Lehman Brothers subsidiary wholly responsible as the entity that hired or entered into joint ventures with the other parties to develop the project.
Haley Maglieri, an attorney representing the Lehman Brothers subsidiary, said she doesn’t comment on pending cases. Attorneys for the defendants in the arbitration case declined comment because of confidentiality provisions...
For full story: http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/14-million-case-for-sinking-soil-under-houses
Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel
Glenwood Springs
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