In Silvercrest v. Novus Construction, Rick Righi and Melissa Lin represented a general contractor who purchased a high-end home in an exclusive residential neighborhood to remodel. The general contractor demolished the existing house and constructed a new house, including a cantilevered lap pool and spa. The president of the regional bank purchased the home as a vacation home. Caretakers of the home discovered a pool leak. When the general contractor and previous owner were made aware of the leak, they offered to repair it. The president refused to allow the general contractor to thoroughly investigate and fix the leak. Rather, the president sued the general contractor for breach of contract, breach of express warranty, breach of an implied warranty, fraud, and consumer fraud, seeking over $900,000 in damages. The general contractor offered to fix the pool and hired a pool construction expert for that purpose. The pool expert provided a bid of $240,000 to fully replace the pool. Based on the bid, the general contractor offered $250,000 in a settlement. The president counter-offered at $850,000. A jury trial ensued. Rick and Melissa argued that the general contractor was always willing to fix the pool and that the president was seeking a windfall. The jury found in favor of the general contractor on the fraud and consumer fraud counts and awarded the president $230,000, comprised of the cost to repair the pool plus $5,000. Because the verdict is less than the general contractor's pre-trial offer, the general contractor is well-positioned for the court to ultimately rule that it is the prevailing party for the purposes of assessing costs and attorney fees.
