Dear Clients and Friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! To all our clients and friends. I am writing this blog in order to help our current and future prospective clients and our friends learn a bit about what we do, how we do it and to share some of the stories and cases our clients bring to us. I have changed the names of the individuals involved and have not disclosed any confidential matters. I hope you find the stories and events I write about interesting and informative.

You may remember the song by the Serendipity Singers, “Ah, Oh, no, don’t let the rain come down. My roof’s got a hole in it and I might drown.”
It was a funny song, but here in Florida, tornadoes, hail and hurricanes do play havoc on the roofs of many houses. This blog is about one of those houses and the owner (our client, we’ll call him “Oscar”) that had a dispute with a roofing contractor. Oscar came to us for help and this is his story.

When Oscar’s roof was damaged by a storm, he contacted his homeowner’s insurance company, who told him to get an estimate of repairs from a licensed roofing contractor, and so he did. Oscar called a local roofing contractor (we’ll call them “Acme Roofing”) to give a bid to fix the roof. Acme provided a proposal that also included an assignment of Oscar’s insurance benefit with his homeowner’s insurer, “All American Insurance Co,” Oscar signed the proposal which stated that Oscar was liable only for his insurance deductible of $1,000, which Oscar paid at the beginning of the roofing repair. The rest of the cost for the roof would be obtained by Acme from All American Ins. Co through the assignment of benefits that Oscar signed.

Well, imagine Oscar’s surprise when Acme filed a Construction Lien against Oscar’s house for over $3,900, and then filed a Lien Foreclosure action, seeking to force the sale of Oscar’s home to pay for the roof repairs. Oscar sought our firm’s help to oppose the lien and protect his home from foreclosure. We filed an answer and various affirmative defenses, ect., and a rather lengthy (longer than it should have taken, anyway) litigation progressed with Oscar obtaining a dismissal of all claims of the roofing contractor and a termination of the case by the roofing company, Acme, without Oscar having to pay a dime to the roofing contractor.

Oscar was able to keep his home and was free from the lien of the roofer. If there’s a lesson to be learned from Oscar’s experience, I guess its be careful when you contract for repairs to your home. There are those who seek to trap the unwary homeowner. And, if you feel uneasy about a contractor or the work he is doing, call an attorney and speak to someone who can look at your contract and other documents. That may protect you from a mistake that may take months or years to resolve and cost lots of money.

I want to give credit to our young associate Christopher Eakes for his fine work on this case. He met with the client, Oscar, and did most of the work on the research and drafting of the pleadings, discovery and depositions. This was for all intents and purposes his case. I get most of the credit for our firm’s successes since I am the senior partner, but it’s the younger people in the firm that keep the litigation machine running.

That’s all I have time for on this our sixth blog. I hope you found it interesting and enjoyable reading. Please check back for additional blog messages. And, as always, I want to say thanks to our clients and friends. If any reader has a legal matter or question, please let us know by emailing us or giving us a call. If we can help, we will. If we can’t, perhaps we can refer you to someone who can. If neither, well, it never hurts to say “Hello”.

Yours truly,
Jonathan S. Dean
Dean and Dean, LLP
Dear Clients and Friends,