An attorney for a group of ex-sales representatives is accusing The Villages of stonewalling on the release of essential information in his clients’ case.
The firm now representing former Properties of The Villages top producers Christopher Day and Jason Kranz is fighting for email and text messages that are said to be vital to their case in U.S. District Court in Ocala.
The Villages has argued that the request from the former sales representatives is too difficult to fulfill.
Properties of The Villages attorney Patrick Muldowney estimated that 178,388 email would have to be resurrected and turned over in the case. The Villages has proposed a list of search terms that could reduce the number of email to be turned over in the case.
Attorney Christopher Prater said that to date, Properties of The Villages has only produced 11 pages of emails and 75 text message chains out of the thousands of documents that are being sought.
“Properties of The Villages filed this lawsuit more than 11 months ago with one goal: to stifle competition. Having failed to obtain an injunction, and with an April 2021 trial looming, Properties of The Villages has resorted to withholding discovery. The unexcused failure to comply with this court’s order granting defendants’ motion to compel should not be tolerated,” Prater wrote in a recent filing in the case.
“Considering your client brought this case against seven of its former employees, it is no surprise that the universe of materials is larger than one may expect in a single defendant case. In terms of proportionality, your client is seeking substantial damages and to put all of these people out of work for years. The burden associated with producing these discoverable documents is unquestionably proportionate,” he wrote in an email to The Villages’ attorney.
The former sales representatives are fighting for back pay they claim they are owed by The Villages. All have given detailed depositions describing uncompensated overtime, mandatory trolley rides, mandatory sales meetings and even being treated like Uber drivers and skycaps for would-be homebuyers arriving on the Lifestyle Preview Plan.
Day has estimated he is owed $1.47 million in back wages, according to a deposition he gave earlier this year.
However, he and the others have argued in court that they cannot properly calculate what they are owed without access to information from Properties of The Villages.
