Attorney files suit against Majestic Hills developer, North Strabane and others
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An attorney acting on behalf of a North Strabane Township couple whose Majestic Hills home was demolished earlier this month due to a landslide filed suit in Washington County Court against the township and several entities and individuals.
Attorney Frank Kosir Jr.,who is also a Peters Township councilman, filed the writ on behalf of his clients, Douglas E. and Suzanne Grimes.
The writ, which initiates a suit, does not include a complaint with specific allegations but names “defective construction” as the reason for the filing.
The Grimeses named as defendants Majestic Hills LLC; JND Properties; Joseph N. DeNardo, individually and doing business as JND Properties LLC; his wife, Shari DeNardo; a Northern Virginia-based builder NVR Inc.,doing business as Ryan Homes; Gateway Engineers Inc.; North Strabane Township; Pennsylvania Soil and Rock, Inc., which performed geotechnical and earthwork monitoring at the site, and its employee, Mark R. Brashear; Alton Industries, Inc. of Somerset Township; Majestic Hills Homeowners Association Inc.; John W. McCombs and Diana G. McCombs; Jeffrey S. Swarek and his wife, Christine L. Swarek; and Jeanne E. Hecht.
Washington County property records identify John W. McCombs as the owner of the one-and-a-half-story, four bedroom home from July 20, 2006, until it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Grimes in September 2015.
Joseph DeNardo did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The township has been dealing with the slide, which caused three homes to be condemned, since June. DeNardo, part owner of the development corporation, Majestic Hills LLC, was ordered in late September by the state Department of Environmental Protection to clean and stabilize a second slide.
North Strabane Township Manager Andrew Walz said the township had not yet been served with the writ, but when the township condemned three Majestic Hills homes, “We worked with them to make sure everything could be removed.”
Once the parties are served with copies of the writ, any or all of them could require Kosir to enumerate allegations in a complaint.
“This is awful for the homeowners,” Kosir said.
“My hope is we never have to file. We would hope that the parties who are responsible will come together and make us whole.
“They’re certainly not looking to profit from this,” he said of his clients. “They only want what they had before.”
Kosir declined to discuss the Grimeses’ living arrangements but said, “They do have a roof over their heads at this time.”
Walz had no comment on Kosir’s assertions.
Washington County Recorder of Deeds Debbie Bardella, who also oversees the county tax revenue office, said the Grimeses had appealed their property assessment based on “catastrophic loss.”
Walz said, “We provided residents who were affected up there the instructions on how to do that.”
In a successful appeal due to catastrophe, a property owner can be granted a tax refund.
The civil action in Washington County Court followed NVR filing a federal suit earlier this month against the DeNardos, Majestic Hills, and a number of other people and entities, seeking more than $75,000 in damages, interest and other costs related to its litigation.
The online federal court docket last week noted the civil action has been placed in an Alternative Dispute Resolution program for mediation.
Those who have been served with the federal complaint are required to answer in either November or December.