Cull and Cull v. Perry Homes – the Saga Continues

Last week, a second round of mediation was ordered in Cull and Cull v. Perry Homes. The ten-year-old dispute has already been the subject of an arbitration, a trial and a court-ordered mediation. Briefly, here are the facts of the case:

In 1996, the Culls purchased a house from builder Perry Homes. After problems with the foundation and construction caused the appraised value of their house to plummet from more than $233,000 to $41,000 in only a few years, the Culls filed suit against both the builder and a home warranty company for shoddy construction. Only days before trial, however, the Culls moved to compel arbitration. The case was submitted to arbitration 14 months after the lawsuit was filed.

After approximately one year of arbitration, the Culls were awarded $800,000 in damages. Perry Homes appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court of Texas in Perry Homes, et al. v. Robert E. Cull and S. Jane Cull. (Our discussion of the case may be read here.) In a headline grabbing twist, the Supreme Court vacated the arbitration award and sent the case back to the trial court.

On March 1, 2010, a Fort Worth jury awarded the Culls approximately $58 million in Cull and Cull v. Perry Homes, et al. In mid-March, the trial court ordered the parties to mediation in an attempt to prevent appeals, but the mediation failed and no settlement was reached. After mediation, the court heard additional arguments regarding the jury award. In April, Disputing updated you on the case here.

On November 24, 2010, a state district judge in Tarrant County ordered another round of mediation to be completed by December 29^th stating, “The parties need to exhaust all efforts to finally settle this long-running dispute.” The judge also declared if no resolution can be reached, he will issue a ruling. Counsel for the Culls responded “I’m going to be surprised if it settles.” The date for mediation has not yet been set.

You may read more about the recent mediation order here.

Stay tuned to Disputing for continued updates on this most unusual of cases.

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