Campbell Law Prevails against Termite Prevention Company in Louisiana
Sugarland Exterminating was ordered to pay for cheating customers in St. Mary’s Parrish, LA.
In 2009, Kevin Simoneaux discovered termites and turned to Sugarland Pest Control to help save his home from these devastating invaders. He then paid Sugarland every year, year after year, believing the company was properly protecting his home, only to find out in 2018 that his entire home was effectively infested with termites and had suffered major damage as a result.
In response to this awful news, Sugarland first lied about how the termites got into the home. Then, to add insult to injury, the Louisiana-based company offered Kevin and his wife, Mindi, two years free treatment – a $400 value – telling them that “$400 can buy a lot of lumber.”
Kevin and Mindi Simoneaux did not take the bait and instead retained Campbell Law, PC – also known as TermiteTom.com.
Entomology experts for Termite Tom quickly discovered that Sugarland had never provided a legal termite treatment. Never.
Because Sugarland decided to take away its customers’ right to a jury trial, the matter was tried before an Arbitrator in Lafayette. Campbell Law PC attorneys showed up ready for the fight.
After a four-day hearing, the Arbitrator agreed with Campbell Law PC that Sugarland was guilty of gross negligence. Rather than awarding the Simoneauxs the measly $400 that Sugarland had suggested, the Arbitrator ruled that Sugarland owed them nearly 1/3 of a million dollars instead – which will certainly buy a lot more lumber!
The team from TermiteTom.com proved that Sugarland never protected the home from termites and worse, that it never intended to. Termite prevention is a highly regulated industry for good reason. If a pest control company follows the use instructions on the FDA registered chemicals and maintains an active chemical barrier, it can prevent termite infestations effectively 100 percent of the time. On the other hand, if the termite company choses to ignore the termiticide’s use instructions and disregards the applicable rules and regulations, termites can and often will enter the home and eventually destroy it.
In this case, Sugarland used less than 30% of the legally required amount of termiticide and failed to treat all required areas of the Simoneaux’s property. Sugarland also performed sham annual inspections – never once entering the home to see if it had eradicated the 2009 termites, and it performed illegal and useless annual “resprays” around the house to trick the Simoneauxs into thinking it was treating the home against termites when it was not.
Shockingly, the owner of Sugarland, Kevin Sellers, admitted that Sugarland never intended to provide the contractually and legally required termite prevention treatments. Using the old “but, Mom, everyone else is doing it” defense, Sellers literally argued, “No one does it right either.”
Thus, for almost a decade, Sugarland effectively stole Kevin and Mindi Simoneaux’s money and actively suppressed the truth from them. Had Sugarland told them the truth – that nothing was being done to protect their home – the Simoneauxs could have taken action to save their home.
Notably, Sugarland also desperately tried to convince the Arbitrator that, because it had sold the Simoneauxs a “re-treat only contract,” specifically excluding any requirement to make repairs, it should not have to pay for the resulting termite damages. Fortunately for the Simoneauxs, the lawyers at TermiteTom.Com Campbell are skilled at navigating around these fraud-tainted contracts and holding the pest control companies to account for their wrongdoing – regardless of what the termite company may have written on some useless scrap of paper.
Campbell Law PC is the nation’s largest law firm focused exclusively on helping those abused by pest control companies. If you believe you may have been cheated by your pest control company, reach out to TermiteTom.Com today – our growing team of lawyers, support staff, and administrative personal are here for you.
