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Tenants, former Casa Del Lago owners settle
Published October 29, 2009
Raine Margoliner is finished with school, works as a registered nurse and is about to move into a house in Brazoria.
Three years ago, things were different. She and her children were forced out of her apartment in the Casa del Lago complex in Lake Jackson after several bats were found on her porch and inside the walls throughout the complex.
“The smell of ammonia was so bad you couldn’t stay in the apartment,” she said.
Margoliner and several tenants at the complex gave testimony this week to help determine how much they will get from a settlement finalized with the complex’s former owners.
More than 30 tenants in 2007 sued Charles Pinter and Royale Property Management for damages on grounds of breach of contract, negligence, fraud and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Tenants and the former owners reached a $105,000 settlement Sept. 21 that will be divided in various amounts among the plaintiffs, said Lynn Klement, who represented Pinter and Royale Property Management.
“For my client, it’s fair,” Klement said. “It removes the uncertainty of a trial.”
Margoliner said the former tenants deserved more, but the longer the suit dragged on, the less they would see in damages.
“We settled for a lot less than what the case was worth,” said Savannah Robinson, who represented the plaintiffs. “Most of them have picked up the pieces of their lives.”
About 300 residents of the complex in the 100 block of Oyster Creek Drive in Lake Jackson were forced out in July 2006 after it was discovered to be infested with a colony of 1,000 Mexican free-tail bats, some of which tested positive for rabies.
The apartments were quarantined by county health officials, and many of the bats were trapped as part of an exclusion process and sent to a bat sanctuary in Mineral Wells.
The exclusion process also involved sealing up the holes the Mexican free-tailed bats had been using to get into the buildings. Several residents, including three children, had to be tested for rabies with a painful series of injections.
“We thought there was a health crisis,” said Dr. Leo O’Gorman, Brazoria County Health Department director. “We were worried about the children getting rabies.”
Officials said there isn’t a known case of rabies from the incident.
The residents were moved into other complexes in other cities, and that caused a lot stress, lost jobs and broken marriages in some cases, Robinson said.
Many residents also had to leave quickly and did not have a chance to gather their personal belongings.
“A large part of their apartments were broken into and burglarized,” Robinson said.
The testimony this week was to help District Judge Pat Sebesta determine how much each plaintiff should receive.
“One woman had her children go through painful rabies shots,” Robinson said. “Another woman lost her home. How do you weigh loss?”
Klement said his client tried very hard to fix the problem once it was discovered, and the quarantine stopped him from doing that.
“He felt he was misunderstood,” Klement said. “Charles Pinter felt he did all that he could do to help.”
The property has since been purchased by another developer and has been rehabilitated and renamed, said Matt Houston, Lake Jackson building official.
John Tompkins covers Brazoria County courts for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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