In February of 2009, Frank Hardy of Frank Hardy, Realtors, Inc. filed suit against Vineyard Estates, LLC, a.k.a. Patricia Kluge and William Moses, for breach of contract on two listing agreements. On Friday, an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge will decide whether the case will head to trial on April 2.
According to the suit, the listing agreements in question were signed and executed by both parties in late 2007 for separate properties—one for a house, and one for a group of lots in Meadows Estates.
In the suit, Hardy claims that Vineyard Estates, LLC, asked to be released from the listing agreements in April 2008. Hardy declined and, according to documents, the defendant contracted another real estate firm, Sotheby’s, to sell the properties. According to court documents, Hardy filed a breach of contract for both listing agreements for $1.8 million in damages.
Yet, according to a counterclaim filed by Vineyard Estates, the defendant claims that a settlement with Hardy was reached to terminate the listings.
“When they dismissed Frank Hardy, there was some discussion about a settlement and they claimed that that discussion can constitute a legal settlement in the case,” says D. Brock Green, Hardy’s attorney. “And we claim it does not, that there was never any kind of meeting of the minds that they would pay a certain amount of money by a certain time and that Frank Hardy would therefore release his rights under both of the contracts.”
Ronald Tweel, attorney for Vineyard Estates, disagrees. According to Tweel, the case was settled for $25,000 and an agreement to release the listings. “That was in our view the final settlement of the case and the court should rule that that should be the final resolution of the case,” says Tweel.
In other Vineyard Estates-related news, a foreclosure sale for Lot 5 of the Meadows Estates will be held in front of the County Circuit Court on March 1 at 9:30am.
“The referenced foreclosure is on only one of the 24 lots and will reduce the debt overhang for purposes of reconfiguring and restructuring the full project for Kluge’s future development interests,” said Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard spokeswoman Kristin Moses Murray in a prepared statement. “Like most real estate projects, it was developed with partners. As a result of the collapse in the real estate market, some of those other partners went bankrupt, and many of the remaining investors abandoned their continuing obligations. In short, they have gone under and we have not.”
The property, sold “as is,” is located at 2621 Coopers Lane in Albemarle County and is assessed at $2.7 million.