Lawsuits

Lawsuits
08/23/11 1:26pm

Don’t Mess with Don’t Mess with Texas

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4 Comments

Who’s upset about a new romance novel called Don’t Mess with Texas and its “numerous graphic references to sexual acts, states of arousal, etc.”? TxDOT, which owns the trademark for the book’s title, and has now filed a lawsuit seeking a restraining order against Hachette Book Group (the book’s publisher), Barnes & Noble, and Houston’s Christie Craig (its author). The book’s official publication date is today. Rifling through a few pages previewed on Amazon, the Houston Press‘s Richard Connelly finds one of them steamy sex scenes — but no reference to the evils of littering along state highways. A TxDOT spokesperson tells Connelly the state transportation agency has succceeded in a similar lawsuit before. Win or lose, Craig may be hoping the ensuing publicity will help spur sales of her upcoming how-to book, Wild, Wicked and Wanton: 101 Ways to Love Like You Are in a Romance Novel.

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Bellaire
08/12/11 3:06pm

Attack of the Dangerous-Building Zombies

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Demolitions, Idylwood, Lawsuits, Public Safety
4 Comments

Cities throughout Texas are slowing down the process of knocking down dangerous structures because of fears that angry owners might come back to bite them — even after their buildings have been demolished. By a 5-4 vote, the Texas Supreme Court last month struck a blow for the property rights of rotting, undead buildings throughout the state, giving their owners the right to sue in court for compensation even if a hearing before a city administrative board has already declared a condemned structure a hazard to public safety. If it isn’t overturned in a rehearing, the decision will likely force Texas cities to pick their demolition battles more carefully, and possibly get courts involved in what has traditionally been something handled by city departments.

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Lawsuits
08/10/11 3:15pm

St. Agnes Drops Suit

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Neighborhood Disputes, Nightlife, Quicklink, Schools, Sharpstown
14 Comments

ST. AGNES DROPS SUIT St. Agnes Academy has officially ended its lawsuit meant to prevent a nightclub called El Corral — planned for the former Finger Furniture store in PlazAmericas — from receiving a liquor license. The suit was filed last Friday against the nightclub’s owners, the city of Houston, and the TABC. A spokesperson for the all-girls private school, which is building an athletic facility across Bellaire Blvd. from the former Sharpstown Mall, tells Swamplot “any future plans regarding the suit are to be determined,” but offered no further comments. [Previously on Swamplot]

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Lawsuits
08/09/11 12:40pm

El Corral and the Fields of St. Agnes

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Neighborhood Disputes, New Construction, Nightlife, Sharpstown
16 Comments

St. Agnes Academy has already begun constructing an athletic complex on the site of the former Gillman Auto dealership at the corner of Bellaire and Fondren in Sharpstown. The 18.7-acre property, which it bought last fall, will have 3 athletic fields, 2 softball diamonds, 8 tennis courts, plus weight rooms, conference rooms, and meeting rooms. But administrators of the all-girls private school aren’t too happy with a development planned across the street in PlazAmericas, the former Sharpstown Mall. Last Friday, the school filed suit to prevent a nightclub from opening in the mall’s former Finger Furniture store.

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Dickinson
07/28/11 8:14am

Stuck in McDonald’s

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East Houston, Hazards, Lawsuits, Quicklink, Restaurants
46 Comments

STUCK IN MCDONALD’S A second family is suing a second area franchisee over playground injuries caused by a metal fastener at a McDonald’s PlayPlace. Last weekend 2-1/2-year-old Alexis Durant caught and gashed her lip on this exposed bolt in a plastic slide in the I-45 feeder road McDonald’s at Pine Dr. in Dickinson, claims attorney Jason Gibson. Last year, another Gibson client sued the owners of the McDonald’s on Uvalde Rd. just south of Woodforest Blvd. after claiming their 6-year-old son cut his head on a screw sticking into a plastic slide tunnel. McDonald’s USA declined to comment on the lawsuits, but issued a statement saying “The safety of our youngest customers is our top priority.” [Click2Houston] Photo: Click2Houston

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Bankruptcies
07/15/11 3:21pm

Behind the Curtain in the Land of Oz: The Collapse of Park 8

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Cancellations and Delays, Chinatown, Commercial Real Estate, Fraud, Lawsuits, Real Estate Investing
3 Comments

Whatever happened to that Park 8 condo tower, hospital, and strip-mall development planned for Beltway 8 next to Arthur Storey Park, just south of Bellaire Blvd.? The Chronicle‘s Purva Patel surveys the wreckage of the self-styled “Land of Oz”: The highrise project has long been in bankruptcy, the contractor and lender are battling over ownership of the land in court, and 2 different groups of investors and condo buyers are suing developer David Wu for their investment losses (totaling more than $2 million), alleging he has or had no intention or ability to complete the project, and that he misled them about funding and leasing commitments. Neither Wu nor his attorney would respond to the reporter’s questions.

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Buying and Selling
04/14/11 8:40pm

The Finger Offer That Never Came: How the Owners of Otto’s Ended Up Settling for Much Less

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Commercial Real Estate, Fraud, Lawsuits, Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Military, Shopping Centers
19 Comments

The longtime owners of the now-shuttered original Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers on Memorial Dr. filed suit on Tuesday against their former broker, Cushman & Wakefield executive director David Cook, claiming that he failed to let them know about several offers to buy their property. As a result, the lawsuit claims, the owners ended up selling their real-estate holdings for — and settling into retirement with — only a third of the money they might have otherwise received. Marcus and June Sofka originally listed their restaurant at 5502 Memorial Dr. and some adjacent property with Cook in August 2007. Two months later, according to the suit, the Ponderosa Land Development Co. submitted a written offer for the land to Cook for $105 a sq. ft. But the Sofkas claim they didn’t hear about that offer until much later. Why wouldn’t Cook have given them such good news?

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Condos
03/21/11 5:29pm

The Glass-Popping Lawsuit at 2727 Kirby

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Hazards, Highrises, Lawsuits, Upper Kirby
23 Comments

A “massive” sheet of glass from a wall surrounding an outdoor recreational area of the 2727 Kirby condo tower fell from the 7th floor to the street and damaged a car sometime after June 21st of last year, according to a lawsuit filed against the developer by the building’s owners. No one was injured, but the incident sparked a round of investigations into the building and the discovery, according to the lawsuit, of additional construction problems: with the glass railings on the balconies of individual units, portions of the metal wall-panel system and the exterior tile cladding, the fire sprinkler system, and the building’s waterproofing, among other things. The lawsuit follows an earlier confidential settlement agreement for other claims against the developer that was worked out last year. Oh, and for those of you keeping score at home, a spokesperson for the building owner says 38 of the building’s 77 units have been sold so far.

Photo: Michael Bludworth

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Fraud
03/04/11 10:31am

HCAD Tax Protest Settlement Protest

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Lawsuits, Quicklink, Taxes
7 Comments

HCAD TAX PROTEST SETTLEMENT PROTEST The largest property-tax consultant in the state agreed last November to an $800,000 settlement with the attorney general’s office that requires it to pay a penalty to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, restricts some of the company’s business practices, and establishes a restitution fund for clients. But the agreed judgment doesn’t require O’Connor & Associates to admit any wrongdoing. A 2-year-old lawsuit alleged that the company routinely represented thousands of taxpayers in property-tax protests without their consent, failed to appear at some clients’ appraisal hearings, submitted documents that were “fraudulently notarized,” and failed to file more than 11,000 legally required client forms to the Harris County Appraisal District. Company president Patrick O’Connor denies the charges, and tells the HBJ‘s Jennifer Dawson his company was picked on by HCAD because it is big and aggressive: “The firm filed 150,000 to 160,000 protests in 2010, at least seven times the volume of its next closest competitor, O’Connor said. ‘Yes, we do make mistakes, but the percentage is a very low percentage. . . . It’s about four per 1,000 hearings that we did.’” [Houston Business Journal; consumer alert]

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Highland Village
01/10/11 1:41pm

Tootsies Beats Back the Landlord: The Sale Must Go On!

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Lawsuits, Openings and Closings, Shopping Centers
15 Comments

There’s a whole lot more drama to the Highland Village Tootsies shutdown battle than just that little overnight lockout, jackhammered walkway, and side-door goodbye sale customers got to enjoy late last week: The Chron‘s Purva Patel reports Tootsies sought a restraining order against the Highland Village Shopping Center, claiming the center was “interfering with its business.” Oh, but that was only after the landlord began eviction proceedings against the women’s clothing boutique on January 4th, a full 5 days after the long-term lease on its only Houston store expired.

The store paid rent of $159,834 at December’s end, but Highland Village plans to return the money, according to court records. The store plans to send it again.

Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia has pics of the scene in front the store at 4045 Westheimer from Saturday morning, just as workers were beginning to scrape off what sure looks like a fresh coat of black paint from the store’s windows. Oh, but that’s not all the trouble Highland Village CEO Haidar Barbouti‘s merry band of graffiti artists caused for its extended tenant. Painted over, and possibly beyond recovery: those “Tootsies Parking” signs on the curb in front!

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Comments
11/08/10 9:00pm

Comment of the Day: We’re Under Your Beach House, Grillin’ Your Burgerz

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Galveston, Lawsuits, Quicklink
5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE UNDER YOUR BEACH HOUSE, GRILLIN’ YOUR BURGERZ “It may appear that the homeowner ‘won’ this case, but read the law again. Texas law allows anyone to place a blanket on the beach, right up to the vegetation line, even if it’s an intrusion on the privacy of a seaside home. Basically, you can have a cookout under the house, park your car, spread out, whatever, and the homeowner has zero ability to do anything about it, as the home is within the vegetation boundary.” [mikeyyc, commenting on Texas Supreme Court: Private Properties Can Erode Public Beaches]

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Buying and Selling
10/15/10 12:08pm

Park Memorial Condo Owners: Ready To Move Back In?

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Condos, Hazrds, Lawsuits, Rice Military
7 Comments

Welcome home to Park Memorial! More than 2 years after city officials ordered the entire Memorial Dr. complex evacuated, the coast may now be clear for owners of the Park Memorial Condominiums to move back into their homes! Except, umm . . . some of those sheet-rock, copper-wiring, and AC-unit removal operations that have been going on in the meantime on the locked and officially empty grounds might make moving back in a little rough. 11 News’s Gabe Gutierrez reports that a Harris County district judge has ruled that the city’s order to vacate the property violated the state’s due process rules because there was no prior notice or hearing, and that there was “no evidence that there was any emergency or immediate danger that justified” requiring the residents to leave without one. The city plans to appeal the ruling.

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Condos
07/02/10 10:28pm

The Party Will Go on at Hans’ Bier Haus

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Lawsuits, Neighborhood Disputes, Nightlife, Quicklink, Rice Village
15 Comments

THE PARTY WILL GO ON AT HANS’ BIER HAUS The little bar in the long shadow of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby Condominiums can keep its alcohol license, a TABC hearing judge ruled today. Residents of the Rice Village condo building contested the license renewal of Hans’ Bier Haus after earlier efforts to silence nosy patrons — with beer cans, lasers, water hoses, and video surveillance — failed. “In his decision, Donovan noted that although police had been called to the bar more than 20 times for noise, they never were cited. . . . The feud continues to be litigated in civil court.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

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Development Restrictions
06/25/10 11:23am

Making the Title Insurance Pay

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Development Strategies, Lawsuits, Quicklink, Retail, Sugar Land
12 Comments

MAKING THE TITLE INSURANCE PAY A Harris County district court has ordered Stewart Title Guaranty to pay $2.8 million to a Sugar Land developer after the title company failed to pay out on a title policy. Back in 2007, Ponderosa Land Development was hoping to build a Chase Bank branch at the corner of Settlers Way and Highway 6. AmeriPoint Title, the title company for the transaction, had obtained title insurance from Stewart Title to cover its work. But AmeriPoint’s title search failed to uncover a deed restriction on the property that specifically prohibited banks from being built on that site: “Stewart Title only offered to pay $200,000 of the $1.83 million title policy, arguing that the land was not worth that much. [Ponderosa’s James] Chang says the purchase price was dictated by the value of the property with the ground lease to JP Morgan and planned sale of the bank to an investor upon completion. Ponderosa is now free to sell the vacant property. Houston Suds has had a contract to buy the site for $953,000 since November 2008, but could not close the transaction and build a car wash until the legal matter was resolved.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

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Condos
06/16/10 9:03am

Bar Fight in the Village: Hans’ Bier Haus Fights for Its License

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Lawsuits, Neighborhood Disputes, Nightlife, Rice Village
26 Comments

Thought Judge Hancock’s January restraining order had quieted the ongoing feud between residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo tower and the little Rice Village bar next door, Hans’ Bier Haus? Well, maybe a little. But both sides pulled out their best complaints for yesterday’s hearing at commissioners’ court, where Robinhood residents are protesting the renewal of the partly open-air bar’s beer and wine license. While January’s court order appears to have quelled the beer-can throwing, the band-dousing, and the collar-grabbing, lawyers for the bar claim that condo residents have been intimidating bar patrons by putting them under surveillance: “They installed high tech videotape and audiotape recording and surveillance microphones and cameras and filmed virtually everything that occurred on the premises of Hans Bier Haus,” bar piano player and attorney Ken Ward complained to the court. Sure, but how else are they gonna have highlights to show in court? The hearing will continue on Thursday.

Video: Jason Witmer, Houston Chronicle

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