Jury Awards Compensatory Damages to 4 Bridlewood Homeowners - Another Settles! The Bridlewood group in Louisville , KY   finally got their day in court, which ended yesterday with compensatory damages ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 each.  As the leader of the group, it was very cathartic to get in the face of DR Horton VP and in-house counsel, David Maurice, yesterday and give him my expectations of DR Horton... we've battled an $11 billion per year monster.

Jury Awards Compensatory Damages to 4 Bridlewood Homeowners - Another Settles!
Kurt Gutting

The Bridlewood group in Louisville , KY finally got their day in court, which ended yesterday with compensatory damages ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 each.  Also, one party in the suit settled with DR Horton before the trial began.

There were some disappointments, however: One case was thrown out and the jury found for Horton in the case of two other plaintiffs.  Also, the (very conservative) judge agreed not to allow the jury to consider punitive damages because of a change in Kentucky law that essentially removes sales fraud liability from an employer if the employer did not direct the employees to commit fraud.

 The fact that Horton was conveniently unable to produce personnel records and therefore unable to place anybody on the witness stand who could have testified where the misrepresentations could have come from only helped the judge in ruling on the motion. 

Regardless of how the judge ruled, however, the jury found 10 to 2 in favor of us, and in later conversations with the jury, it sounds like there would have been a decent chance that punitive damages would have been awarded.  As the leader of the group, it was very cathartic to get in the face of DR Horton VP and in-house counsel, David Maurice, yesterday and give him my expectations of DR Horton.

We are now waiting on the judges decision whether to allow interest on the money since we all took out mortgages, however based on the fact that he ruled overwhelmingly against the plaintiffs during the trial, I am pretty sure he will deny it.  We also have 30 days to decide on whether to appeal, that would keep Horton tied up in Kentucky courts for another 3-5 years. 

Thank you all for your support and suggestions as we've battled an $11 billion per year monster.