Lennar Uses Litigation As A Business Tool
Under the “leadership” of Stuart Miller, Lennar Corporation has been a named defendant in literally hundreds of lawsuits. The lawsuits generally fall into categories like fraud, fraud in the inducement, and breach of contract. As the Lennar executives analyze an opportunity to obtain money the easy way – steal it – they also carefully analyze the ability of the intended victim to fight back. In most cases, the intended victims – for example a homebuyer, a small bank, a subcontractor, or a counter-party to a land contract – have limited resources to litigate with Lennar.
The Lennar executives know this. A primary tool employed by the Lennar executives is resource exhaustion. They rely heavily on an “out-spend and out-wait” strategy to prevail in any litigation situation. And the reality is that this strategy works most of the time. The reader might think that the photo above represents “Equal Justice Under The Law”. The reality is quite different. Few plaintiffs have the resources to match a company like Lennar dollar-for-dollar in a litigation environment. But Lennar doesn’t always win.
The Maryland Land-Fraud Case: Lennar Meets A Judge They Can’t Fool.
A typical Lennar out-spend and out-wait strategy in a case filed in federal court in Maryland didn’t work out so well for them. The case involved an attempt by Lennar to defraud a land-seller in Maryland. At the conclusion of a trial in the matter, the Honorable Deborah K. Chasenow, a Federal Court judge in Maryland, found against Lennar on all counts and ordered Lennar to pay almost $250,000,000 to the plaintiffs.
A recap of the case filed with the court is a primer on the typical Lennar approach to legitimate claims. The document states that:
“This … is the culmination of of almost ten years of litigation … devised by Lennar solely to void its contractual obligations”.
“Ten years of unnecessarily protracted litigation … meritless arguments … compelled Plaintiffs to fight time and time again for basic discovery that revealed Lennar’s evasive intentions”.
“Lennar’s scorched-earth tactics … bad faith litigation tactics … defiance of court orders … covering up discoverable information”.
Lennar paid – but not before exhausting all possible legal strategies to avoid honoring its obligations. Judge Chasenow – detecting a pattern and practice of fraud – forced disclosure of similar litigation pending against Lennar – and found that there was an astonishing 540 fraud suits filed against Lennar. Lennar fielded a number of “experts” in the case – but the judge found that their primary goal was to mislead the court with fabricated testimony. The judge also found that the Lennar executives were not credible and that they lied repeatedly under oath. In other words – business as usual for the Lennar executives.