Texas judge, Rick Morris has made a decision that you might want to know about. I couldn’t find a picture of Rick, so the picture above is of a British judge because it looked so much better than most photos of U.S. judges. Now I am not a regular lawyer and there a lot of people who know a lot more about law than I do. These people are usually referred to as attorneys or lawyers – as in someone with a law degree.
To read all about it click here.
The problem you may have is that Rick wasn’t the only one, the plaintiff got someone else to agree: Alan Waldrop. Justice Waldrop is the presiding judge for the Texas Appellate Court, District 3, in Austin.
To summarize what occurred: Jason and Ashley Bradford bought a house. They were in possession of the house for about a month prior to closing. After closing on the house and officially owning it they get a copy of the appraisal and see that the square footage stated in the listing is different than that shown in the appraisal. The listing said 1,824 square feet, the appraisal said 1,571 – a difference of 253 feet. The buyers sued. The buyers claimed they thought they were paying $65.52 a foot and instead paid $76.07.
It was pointed out at trial and at the appeals court that the listing agent used the square footage information shown on the Bell County Tax Appraisal District and had no reason to suspect it was wrong. Further, the buyers had been to that site several times looking up information on the property.
But it was wrong and the agent lost in court. And again at the appellate level. Specific analysis of both trials with various legal opinions here. In short: the listing agent pays damages for buyer’s square footage difference.
Just a thought – it just might be a good idea to personally verify any information or “fact” we pass along to a client or customer.
