Le Parc Condos Legal Tangle Resolved
A legal morass that had left 264 residents at Le Parc condos looking at a lifetime of debt ended Wednesday.
Farmers Insurance Group will pay $5 million of what was originally a $7.4-million settlement to ZM Corp., freeing the individual homeowners from the fallout of ill-advised decisions by its previous homeowners association.
Le Parc residents have spent the last year saddled with debt after their association board led them into the losing end of a defamation lawsuit filed by construction company ZM Corp.
Farmers will pay the settlement over the next 10 years in a decision that absolves homeowners of all debts stemming from the dispute and ends foreclosure proceedings against more than 40 homeowners.
Le Parc Homeowners Assn. was taken out of receivership Wednesday morning after ZM Corp. agreed to dismiss all claims against the association, Farmers and the individual homeowners, a key sticking point for the beleaguered residents.
“It takes quite a bit of a headache away,” owner Dave Jessop said.
The association agreed to dismiss its legal actions against ZM Corp. and against Farmers, which handles the underwriting for Le Parc association’s insurer, Truck Insurance Exchange.
The attorney for the Le Parc association trumpeted the news that the group, since replaced by another association called Le Parc Community Assn., will be dissolved.
“The settlement is a settlement of all claims,” said Jim Lingl of Knopfler & Robertson in Camarillo. “For the homeowners, this is the best outcome that could be expected. . . . My client will now die a graceful death.”
Le Parc residents will hold a meeting in the coming weeks to ratify the settlement decision.
Le Parc had hired the construction company, operating under the name QwikResponse, to repair shoddy work at the condo complex that dated to its construction in 1991.
In 1998, the courts pegged Le Parc with the debt after arbitrators concluded that the association tried to restructure the repair contract after work started, interfered in agreements between the contractor and subcontractors and tried to destroy ZM Corp. by diverting funds and slandering Darren Zuzow, the company’s owner.
The issue that tied up negotiations was not the amount that Farmers was to pay but other details that could not be discussed under the terms of the settlement, Lingl said.
