Secured Nearly $300k Judgment Against Negligent Contractor

Many people hire contractors to tackle long-awaited home projects. Our clients sought to do exactly that, investing their hard-earned savings into a custom kitchen remodel featuring a unique centerpiece: countertops harvested from a tree in their own front yard. 

Unfortunately, the vision quickly turned into a nightmare. After chopping down the tree, the contractor failed to properly cure the wood, causing the countertops to crack almost immediately. Further negligence occurred when the contractor used heavy staples to hang plastic sheeting, tearing chunks out of the cabin’s interior log walls and leaving the homeowners devastated by the irreparable damage. Cabinetry was poorly installed, and work was left undone. Despite these failures, our clients paid their final invoice in hopes of putting the entire ordeal behind them.

Then, just two days after completion, the newly installed plumbing failed. When they called the contractor to have it repaired, he became abusive. Rather than fix his mistakes, the contractor demanded even more money than the contract allowed. When our clients rightfully refused, the contractor filed a malicious mechanic’s lien on their home, explicitly threatening to run up their legal fees if they didn’t pay. The homeowners turned to our litigation team for help. 

The Colorado Contractor Trust Fund Act expressly prohibits contractors from using one client’s payments to cover another project’s expenses. Yet that is what our attorneys uncovered during their investigation. Rather than make improvements, the contractor had caused substantial damage to their home. Upon proving the contractor’s statutory violation, the court ordered the immediate release of the malicious lien and entered a judgment of nearly $300,000 at an interest rate of eight percent. 

To ensure the contractor couldn’t escape the debts, we asked the court to take the extraordinary step of piercing the corporate veil. This legal concept allows courts to hold individuals personally liable for their company’s actions or debts. This ensures that the contractor cannot simply fold up his business and start under a new name. Now, we are aggressively pursuing post-judgment enforcement to ensure our clients recover every dollar they’re owed.