Louisiana AG sues contractor

NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline)-The state of Louisiana is suing Anderson & Gutierrez Development, alleging that the company took hundreds of thousands of dollars to build or improve modular homes without doing so.

The complaint seeks injunctive relief, restitution, and civil penalties against the company and John Anderson, John Gutierrez and Thomas Gibson for violating Louisiana's Unfair Trade laws.

According to the complaint filed this month, the defendants controlled, directed, formulated, knew, participated in, had authority to control, and approved of the various deceptive acts and practices of Anderson & Gutierrez Development LLC.

Anderson & Gutierrez have been contracting to provide construction of modular homes in the New Orleans area for several years.

The Attorney General's office has received several complaints concerning the practices of Anderson & Gutierrez Development which lead to the investigation into this matter.

One of the complaints they received was from Priscilla Miller who entered into a contract with the defendants in October 2007 for the construction of a modular home for the price of $98,500. Anderson & Gutierrez Development received $99,200, yet no home was ever received and the defendants were unable to be reached.

The complaint states that the defendants engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices, acts and practices against the elderly or disabled, consistently failed to perform contracts and/or has failed to complete contracts with no good cause and/or have engaged in fraud or bad faith with respect to such contracts, all of which are in violation with Louisiana law.

The relief being asked for is that the company be restrained from advertising or contracting for any new business in the state of Louisiana by any name or through any corporation.

The complaint also asks that defendants pay restitution to all consumers who have incurred a loss due to the defendants' conduct in addition to reimbursing the costs of the attorney general's office investigation.