Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
TAMPA - Managers at Coachman Crossing Apartments didn't listen when Orkin repeatedly told them to remove mulch around their complex and shorten wooden panels that touched the ground to help get rid of termites, Orkin's attorney said Thursday.
The owners of the Clearwater apartments are suing Orkin, claiming the company faked termite treatments and neglected to fully disclose the apartment's termite problem. The owners want $6.7-million, the amount they say the value of the complex has decreased because of the damage.
Opening statements began Thursday in the civil trial.
Daniel J. Gerber, Orkin's attorney, said wood in the apartment buildings had absorbed water, creating conditions in which termites thrive. He told jurors a former Coachman Crossing employee said, "You could press against the building, and it was like a sponge."
Gerber read a copy of the original contract Orkin signed with the apartment complex in 1992 that said the property owner was responsible for eliminating conditions that would attract termites, such as wood siding that touched the ground. According to the contract, he said, Orkin is not responsible for remedying such problems.
Peter Cardillo, Coachman Crossing's attorney, said Orkin has a history of deceiving their customers and falsifying work orders.
"Managers encouraged and directed forgeries," he said.
Cardillo said current and past Orkin employees will testify that they were told to forge customers' signatures to receive bonuses. One employee forged about 300 signatures during one sitting, he said.
Gerber expects there will be no more than three instances in which Coachman Crossing employees dispute their signature on paperwork. Also, those documents don't require a customer's signature, so they are not covered by state forgery laws, he said.
"There is no fraud at all with respect to Coachman Crossing," Gerber said. "There is no intent to deceive in this case."
Cardillo spent most of his opening statment showing jurors paperwork: memos sent between Coachman Crossing and Orkin during an eight-year period and copies of work orders and contracts.
The contract between Orkin and the apartment complex has a clause guaranteeing up to $500,000 from Orkin for repairs on the complex's 15 buildings.
Cardillo said Orkin settled with the complex at one time, giving them $18,000 for termite damages done after Orkin had begun exterminating. Coachman Crossing even received money from Orkin when an Orkin employee accidentally sprayed termite poison in the complex's pond, killing the fish.
Gerber pointed out that Coachman Crossing still uses Orkin's services: "They still want Orkin to be their pest control company."
Orkin is appealing a circuit judge's decision to grant class-action status to a lawsuit representing individual homeowners. If that class-action status is upheld, it could give as many as 100,000 Florida homeowners the right to file claims against the extermination company.
Testimony in the case involving Coachman Crossing will resume Monday before Circuit Judge Claudia Isom.
- Kevin Graham can be reached at 226-3375 or kgraham@sptimes.com