What case?
What court?
What exactly is the story?
The couple I sold my house to approx 3 years ago are suing me; basically saying that I did not disclose that the there were soil compaction problems with the property. They are suing for $80,000.00 because they can not build a pool.
They are claiming 4 different counts; all of which I can't exactly remember, but here is what I recall:
Fraud
Misrepresentation
?
Breach of contract (which I have been informed has recently been dropped).
The problem is, I never knew there were any problems with the property. My wife and I sold the house because it was too small for us as my wife was pregnant with our 3rd child and the house we sold only had 4 bedrooms. We bought a house just around the corner in the same neighborhood. In fact the house we bought is made by the same builder.
So far, two witnesses for their case has been disproved in depositions. Their main witness is a pool contractor whom they claim told me that we asked him to build a pool for us on the above mentioned property and that he told us that he would not build a pool on that property because of the soil compaction issues.
Basically, during a deposition, this contractor told my lawyer that he did not know who we were and that he never told us as the previous owners that we could not build a pool there.
My lawyer and I were hopeful that this would end the case; however, it did not.
Their next claim is that our previous neighbor who did in fact have a pool built and subsequently his pool cracked, told us of his problems with his pool. When questioned by our lawyer, our previous neighbor states that he did not recall telling us of his cracked pool.
Long story short, I am innocent and I did not know of these issues when I sold the house. I would not have knowingly sold a house with these types issues.
My lawyer has just advised me to file a 998 settlement judgement for no restitution. This would mean that I would have to pay for my lawyer fees (in excess of $5,000.00) and the case would be settled. He states that I could also file this same settlement for full restitution, however it is very likely to be denied. I would then have to go through a lengthy process of mediations and negotiations and eventually it would require us winning a summary judgement from a judge. This judge would have to find us innocent of any wrong doing and would have to rule that the other party had no cause to sue and then order them to pay my fees. I have been told that this would be difficult to acheive.
Bottom line: I am being wrongfully sued for something that I did not do. (Tell the people I sold my house to that they could build a pool when they claim that I knew that a pool could not be built due to soil issues).
Thanks for taking the time to read this very long reply.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
