Mansfield couple’s fight with powerful homebuilder back in court
...it was like starting all over again... The Culls are a retirement-age couple who say Perry Homes built a defective house with a broken foundation and cracked walls, but won’t fix it. The Mansfield couple took their case to arbitration and won an $800,000 award — but Perry refused to pay, saying the couple had waived their legal rights to arbitrate. Years of appeals followed. Lower court judges ruled in the Culls’ favor, directing Perry to pay. The builder appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, whose members have all received campaign contributions from Perry, the state’s most prolific political giver. After reviewing the case more than a year, the Supreme Court wiped out the award and sent the case back to district court...Jane Cull said she fears the fight could sap not just their savings but also their energy. “Bob Perry doesn’t have to watch the money clock,” she said. “He has pockets deeper than the ocean.”

 Dallas Morning News
Slater: Mansfield couple’s fight with powerful homebuilder back in court
Wayne Slater
February 9, 2010

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FORT WORTH — When Bob and Jane Cull returned to court last week in their decade-long legal battle against homebuilder Bob Perry, it was like starting all over again.

Jane Cull’s “nightmare,” as she calls it, has been bouncing from court to court for years.

“We’re just wondering, when will it ever end?” she said the other day in downtown Fort Worth, where their case is back in district court. Again.

The Culls are a retirement-age couple who say Perry Homes built a defective house with a broken foundation and cracked walls, but won’t fix it. The Mansfield couple took their case to arbitration and won an $800,000 award — but Perry refused to pay, saying the couple had waived their legal rights to arbitrate.

Years of appeals followed. Lower court judges ruled in the Culls’ favor, directing Perry to pay. The builder appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, whose members have all received campaign contributions from Perry, the state’s most prolific political giver.

After reviewing the case more than a year, the Supreme Court wiped out the award and sent the case back to district court.

To some, the case has become symbolic of the difficulty an average homeowner faces in going up against a politically well-connected builder with deep pockets.

Perry has given millions of dollars to politicians, including Gov. Rick Perry (no relation), who have advanced his agenda of tort reform to curb lawsuits and limit jury awards against business.

As the trial opened last week, Jane Cull took the stand. Bob Cull, in a wheelchair now because of health problems, sat waiting his turn to testify.

Perry’s attorneys say that whatever the claims of earlier problems, there’s nothing wrong with the house. They showed the jury photos of smooth walls, doors closed, windows shut tight. The Culls’ lawyers countered with photos of their own — cracked walls, a broken foundation, the roof heaving up.

In the beginning, the Culls wrote Bob Perry, thinking that if they explained the problem he would fix it. When he didn’t, they filed suit, but they switched to arbitration because they feared a long legal battle. Now, that’s exactly where they find themselves.

Sitting in the hallway of the courthouse during a break in the trial last Friday, Jane Cull said she fears the fight could sap not just their savings but also their energy.

“Bob Perry doesn’t have to watch the money clock,” she said. “He has pockets deeper than the ocean.”

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