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George Andres owes $21,000 in legal fees for a dispute over an illegal flagpole.
©Associated Press
March 31, 2003
WEST PALM BEACH -- George Andres' legal struggle to keep a 12-foot flagpole in his yard may cost him his house in Jupiter.
The Legislature passed a law last year to help him and Gov. Jeb Bush came down to present him a flag, but all that may not be enough to save him from a mortgage foreclosure.
Circuit Judge Edward Fine ruled on Friday that the Indian Creek Phase 3B Homeowners Association could proceed with foreclosure to collect $21,000 in legal fees that Andres, a 66-year-old former Marine, owes them.
Andres said he will appeal, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
He has been battling with the homeowners association for more than three years over its objections to his flagpole.
The association permits flags to be flown only from wall brackets attached to homes.
A circuit judge ruled in 2000 that he had to remove the pole and fined him $7,400 when he violated her order. The order was upheld by an appeals court.
The homeowners association also filed a lien against Andres' house for the legal fees it said he owned them.
Andres' plight attracted attention in Tallahassee, where the Legislature passed a law allowing people to fly the American flag regardless of homeowners association rules.
On Flag Day last year, Bush presented Andres a flag that had flown over the state Capitol and helped him raise it on the flagpole. The new law apparently did not help Andres in the foreclosure case, because it was passed long after the lien was placed on his house.