Lawsuits filed against Melbourne pool company, alleging it didn't do work it was paid for
Cocoa Beach resident Patrick Lee says he paid $92,276 to Legacy Pools in three installments during 2021 to build him a new swimming pool at his home under construction on North Shore Drive. But the Melbourne company never finished the job, and Lee had to hire another pool company recently for an additional $62,000 to pick up the project.
Attorneys for Stewart Law, a Rockledge law firm, say they believe there are hundreds of scenarios in Brevard and nearby counties, in which Legacy Pools did not come through on its promises, with some instances dating back to 2019. And they have begun filing lawsuits in Circuit Court ― including one on behalf of Lee ― seeking to recover payments made to Legacy Pools over the last several years.
The attorneys held a news conference Wednesday outside the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Justice Center in Viera to announce the start of legal action against Charles David Black Jr. and Kristin Danae Black, a married couple who are the co-owners of Legacy Pools. Associates of the Blacks and their company also are named as defendants in some of the cases.
The law firm's managing attorney, Blake Stewart, said he believes Legacy Pools may have had contracts to build 350 to 450 pools in Brevard, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, but did not complete many of the projects after getting partial or full payments from the homeowners.
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Stewart said the pools in question generally were valued at $60,000 to $180,000 apiece, depending their size, and on added features like hot tubs, waterfalls and infinity-pool styling. Typically, Legacy Pools would seek a 20% or more down payment from customers, do some work, then demand additional payments, but not complete the job, Stewart alleged.
"They would get as much money as possible," Stewart contended. "They have a pattern of doing it."
He said the Blacks are "very personable, they lean on faith quite a bit," and their customers trusted them.
"They were operating on a scheme to get as large of deposits as possible out of homeowners, engaging subcontractors to do the barest of minimum of work to try to skate by within the framework of our Florida statutes and case law, and then further would rip off the subcontractors for that same work, which then further subjected the homeowners to liens by those hapless subcontractors for work that they had already paid for," Stewart claimed in announcing the start of legal action. "So that means any homeowner that was subjected to a lien had to pay for that work twice."
In the lawsuit filed on behalf of Lee, Stewart said he "has gathered and reviewed both formal and personal accounts from Florida consumers concerning defendants' business practices, which collective allege tens of millions of dollars spent on unstarted and/or inadequate services."
"People were paying, thinking they were legitimately getting the pool of their dreams," Stewart said, but didn't get a completed pool. "It has led to life savings being spent, emotional wreckage, dangerous pools, dangerous conditions being left in people's backyards."
Stewart contends that Legacy Pools capitalized on homeowners' desire to have a swimming pool during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"People were scared during the lockdown, and there was a boon in the pool business," Stewart said. "We were in a very dark time, and we were locked away in our homes. And that is why there was a boon in the pool-building industry. If you had a pool, you had something. You had time to spend with your family during a very uncertain time. And this is when they made a lot of money."
Stewart said Legacy Pools no longer is operating from its previous location on North Drive in Melbourne, and the company now is in bankruptcy court proceedings. Stewart said the whereabouts of the Blacks are unknown to him.
FLORIDA TODAY was unable to reach the Blacks for comment. Phone numbers connected with their business were either out of service or unanswered. A message left at one of those phone numbers was not returned, and a message left with an attorney in their company's bankruptcy case was not returned.
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What is Legacy Pools?
Legacy Pools was started in Brevard County in 2018. Stewart said the Blacks previously operated pool companies in North Carolina and Virginia under various names.
Stewart said his law firm so far has filed lawsuits on behalf of six plaintiffs, and is in contact with more than 40 other people who may have been customers of Legacy Pools, but didn't get the pools they were promised. He said the law firm represented these people on a related matter involving the pool company.
Complicating the matter is the company's bankruptcy court filing, which can restrict lawsuits against the company.
Edward Kinberg, an attorney with Stewart Law who is an expert in construction law, said his firm is seeking to gain a bankruptcy court judge's permission to proceed with the legal action on behalf of the pool customers.
Stewart said he hopes that, "through a combination of the incredible discovery resources available to us in the bankruptcy court, and also our efforts and discovery in these state court cases which we have filed, that we will be able to follow the money, and, hopefully, recover something for as many victims as possible. We intend to do everything we can with these lawsuits to fight for the people of Florida."
Stewart said the scenario they allege Legacy Pools was involved in is "one of the hardest civil actions to bring, because the thresholds for construction are so low that it is very easy to do the bare minimum of work and not be considered criminal."
Stewart said, even if the Blacks cannot be found, his law firm plans to go after "a network of people," including former Legacy Pools employees and other associates, to seek to recover money for its clients.
He said some Legacy customers "spent their entire life savings on these pools," and have no money left to hire another company to finish the job.
"It is our hope that more victims will step forward and join our cause," Stewart said. "It is our hope that, as we continue to find more victims, more evidence, and raise the profile" of the cases that the State Attorney's Office or the Florida Attorney General's Office also gets involved in investigating the pool company.
Lee, the Cocoa Beach homeowner, hopes he gets his money back from Legacy Pools, and that its owners are brought to justice.
"I don't like crooks," Lee said.
Tyler Vazquez contributed to this story.
Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Lawsuits claim Legacy Pools didn't finish work after getting paid
