Fairway Oaks, Florida was the scene of a moving demonstration of volunteerism. There was former President Jimmy Carter and 10,000 volunteers building the entire house estate in a 17-day blitz. Residents have now gone to court to complain that the volunteers did a poor job and that the charity never disclosed that it was building the home over a garbage dump. They claim finding garbage under their floors and developing mysterious skin rashes. Lawyers for Humanity have yet to respond publicly.
April Charney represents the home owners and claims that the entire estate is built on a garbage dump that and one man found 5 feet of garbage under his kitchen floor. There are complaints about massive numbers of roaches, rats, and mildew.
Other residents are not sympathetic to the claims. Diennal Fields, 51, insists: “It’s simple stuff: if there is mildew, don’t get a lawyer, get a bottle of bleach.”
People like Fields are a serious threats to the American way of life. Just think if everyone was to grab a bottle of bleach instead of a lawyer. Where would that lead us? I charge $750 a hour for floors and $800 an hour for bathrooms.
For many, this is a case of no good deed goes unpunished. However, the litigants insist that it was always a dangerous idea to have volunteers build homes rather than professional builders. The only good thing to come out o this is that Lawyers for Humanity will be ready to deal with the aftermath.
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That’s an interesting development especially since Florida has abolished charitable immunity. I suspect the case will have tough going since in my experience with HH, the requisite permits are usually obtained prior to construction and the houses are inspected by the County like any other. Plus it’s not really what one would call a great case for jury sympathy. I wonder what the damages might be since the house was freely given. Mold injury cases are incredible hard to prove since there are so many alternate causes to exclude. This case seems ripe for settlement for nuisance value.