 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Sweet v. Roy4/26/2002
On Appeal from Bennington Superior Court John P. Wesley, J.
Defendants Marcien Roy, Leon Roy, and the Marcien and Mary Anne Roy Trust (the trust) appeal from a judgment entered in Bennington Superior Court on a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff Jodi Sweet. Defendants made several claims of error in a post-judgment motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial, and renew those arguments here: (1) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of defendants' prior bad acts; (2) the court erred in ruling plaintiff was entitled to the protections of the Mobile Home Park Act, 10 V.S.A. §§ 6201-6266; (3) the trust was entitled to judgment as a matter of law; (4) the jury's damage award should have been set aside; (5) it was error to dismiss defendants' counterclaim for slander; and (6) the court erred in excluding evidence of a threat made against defendants by an alleged agent of plaintiff. We affirm.
The trial focused on events with respect to Jodi Sweet after she purchased a mobile home located in the Royal Pine Villa Mobile Home Court (the park), and with respect to others who owned homes in the park. The park had been owned and managed by Marcien and Mary Anne Roy for twenty years, but in 1993 ownership was transferred to the trust. The park was originally managed by Marcien, but by the time of this case management responsibilities had been assumed by Leon Roy, son of Marcien and Mary Anne. Paula Roy, wife of Leon, was responsible for running the park office, bookkeeping and answering the telephone. The Roys all lived on the park premises.
The park consists of sixty-six mobile home lots. Some of the mobile homes are owned by individual lessees who pay defendants a monthly lot rental; others are owned by defendants, in which case the rent is higher than it would be for the lot alone. For example, lot rent typically runs about $200-230 per month, whereas rent for a lot and mobile home is two to three times that amount.
Plaintiff purchased her mobile home, which was located on lot 35 in the park, from Justin Schwartz in February 1997 after several unsuccessful attempts to contact defendants in order to determine what she needed to do to obtain a lease. Plaintiff and her three-year-old daughter moved into the mobile home that month. She called defendants and left voice messages with them on a daily basis; she also sent them letters and mailed them lot rent checks for February and March 1997. The checks were not cashed, and defendants never responded to the calls and the letters. Plaintiff spent $3800 on improvements to the heating, flooring and wiring of the mobile home.
Soon after sending her third letter to defendants in March 1997, plaintiff returned home from work and discovered that someone had systematically smashed out all thirteen glass windows in her mobile home. One week later, plaintiff approached Marcien Roy in the park, and he told her he wanted her out of the park and offered her $500 for her mobile home. Shortly thereafter, plaintiff returned home from work to discover she had no electricity. She called an electrician, who determined that the underground electrical wires to her mobile home had been cut and covered between the home and the service meter. To restore service, plaintiff and several friends spent a day hand-digging a trench approximately two feet deep and sixty feet long so that new wires could be installed the next day. Leon Roy backfilled the trench with a backhoe before the wires could be run. Plaintiff had to redig the trench again by hand. By the time the new wiring was installed, she had been without power for about a week. Upon returning to the mobile home with her daughter after power was restored,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Vermont DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|