Cheated Corporate Lawyer and Wife Sue Billion Dollar Company for Fraud
Ken Simon, former Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge, and current partner at Christian Small LLP, has been appointed by Circuit Judge Helen Shores Lee to hear fraud claims brought by Walter and Paige Scott against Terminix International. Walter is a local Birmingham lawyer.
Although an expert in corporate law, Walter has to hire experts in other fields to protect his home and family. When a corporate lawyer must sue a corporation for intentional fraud to receive a fair resolution, you know there is a serious problem. And that is the case here.
Terminix was hired to prevent termites.
Terminix promised to provide that advice after termite damage was discovered and repaired in 2001.
However, rather than apply prevention measures, Terminix just pretended it did. The result has been massive termite damage over the past nine years.
Terminix made some repairs and then walked off the job before finishing. Other repairs were done inadequately causing part of the home to shift.
A government investigation has already concluded the Scott’s were cheated and that Terminix collected money every year for nine years without providing the require prevention service.
During a months-long repair project by Terminix contractors, high level Terminix managers inspected the home and continued to conceal that Terminix had never performed prevention services that were required by internal guidelines. Fortunately, Campbell Law has those guidelines dating to the 1970s.
Retired Judge Simon now works for a large corporate defense firm.
We will see if he will award damages for the decrease in value of this Mountain Brook home, mental anguish for the Scott’s, and punitive damages to punish Terminix for its intentional fraud and to deter it from continued cheating. The case is now in the discovery stage and is set for a hearing in late March.
Terminix includes arbitration clauses in its contracts so fraud cases like this will be conducted in near secret conditions rather than in a public setting.
Consent decrees have been entered against Terminix in other states where state attorneys general have caught it not applying termite prevention treatments as a routine matter.
Alabama’s attorneys general have a long history of ignoring consumer fraud in a relatively poor state where resources are scarce.
Scott is forcing the arbitrator to stick his neck out. Arbitrators are notorious for “splitting-the-baby”. The Scott’s chose to sue for fraud but not breach of contract so the arbitrator will have to find fraud occurred or let the offender of “Scott-free.”
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