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Testimonials
Tony Baker, Westview Homeowner
I want to pass Laura and my great appreciation to Casey and you all for your great work and dedication to our problem! You’ve really made a difference in our lives here!
Anita Thompson, Westview Estates HOA president
Even though you and Adil are pros, the board and plantiffs at Westview Estates sometimes felt as if we were engaged in a David versus Goliath battle against some very high-powered and well-financed players.
Casey & Skoglund go after MacDonald Miller Residential and, on behalf of their clients, SCORE A BIG ONE!
The question remains who is going to pay for this mess. One target is MacDonald-Miller, although Chris Casey, an attorney for the homeowners, said that MacDonald-Miller is arguing that the corporate entity that installed the systems no longer exists.
Chuck Orton, the president of MacDonald-Miller Residential, said he was one of the partners in the old McDonald-Miller organization that was sold to Group Maintenance America Corp. in 1997. MacDonald-Miller Residential was not one of the entities sold. Orton briefly went to work for GroupMAC/Encompass in Houston. He left Encompass and, with other partners, bought the assets of MacDonald-Miller Residential in July 2001. Since Encompass filed for bankruptcy, some other key players bought back MacDonald-Miller and are operating it as MacDonald-Miller Facilities Services, Orton said.
“This particular business is a different company with different ownership that the company prior to July 2, 2001,” said Orton, who commented that he’d probably said far more than his lawyer would be comfortable with. He said the lawyer for the insurance companies of the predecessor firm was handling the lawsuits. The lawyer did not return phone calls from CONTRACTOR.
“MacDonald-Miller Residential was purchased in 2001 by a holding company that retained the name and the employees and it goes under another name,” explained attorney Casey. “And since the purchaser is not the company that did the install, we got nobody to sue, so it’s crafty as hell.
“They saw this coming down the pike in 2000 and 2001 when they started getting complaints from homeowners, so they sold the company,” Casey continued. “They’re still using MacDonald-Miller trucks and people but technically they don’t exist.”
Casey estimates that it will cost $25,000 per unit for repairs.
Meanwhile, Murray figures all the units must be completely re-piped within the next 12 months or else risk huge property damage.
“I have hundreds of people madder than hell who want their systems fixed,” he said.
Read the full article at www.contractormag.com