Plaintiffs in suit against Perry Homes, warranty company, win $58 million

On March 1, a Fort Worth jury awarded more than $58 million in damages, including $44 million in punitive damages, to a Mansfield couple who sued Perry Homes and a home warranty company over structural and drainage problems in the home they bought from Perry Homes in 1996. The 236th District Court jury returned its verdict in Cull and Cull v. Perry Homes, et al. “I think justice was done,” says Van Shaw, lead counsel for plaintiffs Robert and Jane Cull. Shaw, principal in the Law Office of Van Shaw in Dallas, says the jury awarded the Culls about $7.1 million in actual damages and $40 million in punitive damages against Perry Homes. The jury awarded the Culls the same amount of actual damages against Warranty Underwriters Insurance Co. plus $4 million in punitive damages, says Shaw, who predicts the defendants will appeal the verdict. Gardere Wynne Sewell Dallas partner Gregory A. Harwell, attorney for Perry Homes and Warranty Underwriters, did not return a telephone call and an e-mail seeking comment. In 2002, an arbitrator had awarded the Culls $800,000, but Perry Homes and Warranty Underwriters appealed that award to the Texas Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision in 2008, the high court vacated the arbitration  award. Then-Justice Scott Brister wrote for the majority that the Culls, who sought to compel arbitration shortly before the case was scheduled to be tried, waited too long, thereby waiving the arbitration option.
-- Mary Alice Robbins