Ben Schachtman: Alright, Nikolai, tenants have claimed that mismanagement by Pendergraph led to both their displacement and various illnesses – what was their response?
Nikolai Mather: It seems like Pendergraph is attacking this from a bunch of different angles. They're saying this can't be brought as a class action suit — that the plaintiffs lack standing, that they haven't fulfilled all the requirements, et cetera. They also say that if the plaintiffs have suffered damages, it's not Pendergraph's fault — it's their contractors' fault, or it's the town's fault. Actually, the attorneys are asking CEO Frankie Pendergraph be removed from the suit entirely because she wasn't involved in managing the specific property.
And then they invoke a whole mess of other legal defenses. There were two others that really stood out to me: one, that the alleged health issues were caused by the tenants' quote "idiosyncratic reaction or peculiar susceptibility," and since Pendergraph couldn't predict that, it's not their fault. Two – and I'll just read this straight from the page, if that's cool?
BS: Go ahead.
NM: "The plaintiffs and/or putative class members contributed to their alleged illness by the use, either in whole or in part, of other substances, products, medications and/or drugs."
BS: Wow. So, are they alleging that drug and alcohol use might be responsible for the tenants' illnesses?
NM: At least in part — more generally, Pendergraph is saying that it's the residents' fault. Pendergraph alleges that tenants were responsible for their own mold issues — that they failed to adequately inform Pendergraph, or if they did, the tenants made the mold worse.
BS: That doesn't quite jive with what the lead plaintiff said.
NM: Well, no — but their response to resident Briana Paull's account is very interesting. They admit to getting complaints about water damage and mold dating back to the fall of 2022. They admit to hiring different contractors to remediate the problem, even sending out Pendergraph employees to remediate it. But they offer very vague responses to Paull's specifics. For example, she says that a contractor found mold growing on her wall studs, and that Pendergraph came and sprayed an unknown substance on it. Pendergraph's version is that they quote "remediated certain issues."
BS: Paull also alleged that they went against contractor recommendations for cleaning up the mold. What did they say to that?
NM: So Paull specifically said that Stanley Steamer, who was hired to clean up the mold, gave her a set of recommendations for dealing with the mold — that they clean her air ducts, that they clean her walls, and that they look behind the sheetrock to see how bad the mold problem was. Paull alleged that Pendergraph ordered the contractor to only clean her air ducts. And in this reply, they denied doing that.
BS: I see. So, Nikolai — is this what you expected? Any major surprises here?
NM: Honestly, no. This is what I thought they were going to say. Mold is one of those issues that tend to get blamed on the tenants — a landlord might claim that their tenant failed to clean up after a leak, or didn't deter mold growth by keeping their HVAC running. But that all assumes that there were no glaring structural issues to begin with. And that's assuming the property managers are doing regular and sufficient maintenance.
BS: And those are some pretty big assumptions to make.
NM: Oh yeah.
BS: So, the reply is out — what happens now?
NM: We're still waiting for the town of Holly Ridge's response — that'll be coming February 13. But other than that, we wait for the court to start moving on this. I'm very interested to see whether they'll take Frankie Pendergraph off the lawsuit. I guess I'll just be glued to PACER for the next few weeks.
BS: Ah, the online federal court databases — one of my favorite things in journalism.
NM: I'm saying.
BS: Alright. Nikolai, thanks for your reporting.
NM: You're welcome!
