Frank C Pollara Grp. LLC v. Ocean View Inv. Holding, LLC

Realtor Willis planned Southgate, involving the purchase of 68 acres on St. Croix, re-zoning, subdivision, building infrastructure, and selling individual lots. Willis worked with defendants Cheng and Dubois and their entities (OMEI, Ocean View) for financing, but the defendants did not actually intend to develop the property. Pollara, a 47-year veteran of the construction industry, was hired to create the subdivision’s entrance. Ultimately Cheng and Dubois stopped paying Pollara and locked him out of his site office. Pollara was never paid for repair work to the roadway after flooding. Defendants, standing on both sides of the financing, refused any extension of the financing terms; they withheld their consent to selling the land at a profit to a buyer whom Willis had found. They caused Ocean View to foreclose, acquiring the property free of Willis’s and Pollara’s interests. The jury found that Ocean View and Cheng had made intentional misrepresentations and that OMEI had made negligent misrepresentations and that Dubois had made negligent misrepresentations with respect to the building permit and proposals for the development plan, and intentional misrepresentations as to the other three subjects. The jury awarded Pollara compensatory damages of $391,626 from all of the defendants and punitive damages of $90,000 against Cheng. The Third Circuit affirmed. View "Frank C Pollara Grp. LLC v. Ocean View Inv. Holding, LLC" on Justia Law