PORT ST. JOE RESIDENTS DEMAND JUSTICE AT ANNUAL ST. JOE COMPANY STOCKHOLDER MEETING

- Residents say company sold them uninhabitable land -

May 12, 2009

JACKSONVILLE, FL - Residents from a small, crumbling neighborhood in Port St. Joe, Florida, today rallied outside the St. Joe Company's annual shareholder's meeting at its headquarters in Jacksonville. The residents are demanding justice from the company that two decades ago deceptively sold them wetland lots that St. Joe had filled with mill waste and pine bark as home sites.

The seven property owners purchased land in the late 1980s - land that years before had been improperly filled in with pine bark, wood chips and other paper mill waste by the St. Joe Company. The modest homes built on that land now are sinking and breaking apart, rendering them unsafe and uninhabitable. Now, after years of litigation alleging negligence, fraud and unfair and deceptive trade practices, the residents are demanding justice.

"These homes are literally sinking around them, with foundation rot causing cracks so deep that insects and snakes wander in regularly," said consumer advocate and former deputy attorney general Walter Dartland, who serves as executive director of the Consumer Federation of the Southeast. "For a company with the resources and reputation of the St. Joe Company to leave these seven destitute families in this deplorable condition for so long is positively inhumane."

As one of Florida's largest real estate development companies and Northwest Florida's largest private landowner, St. Joe should have disclosed that the lots along North Bay Street had been filled with organic material that would not provide a supportive residential slab on grade foundation, the residents say. But representatives for the St. Joe Company contend the residents waited too long to sue.

"I don't know what to tell the families when they ask me why a company like St. Joe, who sells and develops premier luxury lots and homes to some of the wealthiest people in America, would allow their homes to fall into the ground," said Tallahassee Attorney Tracy Moye.

The families, who are all African American and labored in the once-operating paper mill owned by the St. Joe Company, purchased the land in a historically segregated part of Port St. Joe called Millview. Although several of them specifically requested to be shown other lots to purchase outside of Port St. Joe, then-representatives of St. Joe Company informed them that the only home sites they could purchase were on Bay Street.

Cynthia Alexander, Charles and Dorothy Ash, Sharon and Daryl Lee, Amy and Raymond Rogers, Arion and Debbie Ward, and Anita Tiller currently live in the six houses still occupied on the dilapidated block. The houses have undergone extensive repairs, only to be doomed by the sinking ground beneath them.

Vernell Bailey was forced to move from her home in 2001 because it was no longer safe for habitation. Sharon Lee uses aluminum foil to protect her 13-year-old son from spiders that slip through the widening cracks. And Anita Tiller wonders how much longer her house will survive before collapsing around her.

Time only exacerbates the damages in this case as the homes continue to deteriorate at an accelerated rate. One home has no homeowners insurance due to cancellation. Another has already been burned to its foundation. As summer approaches, most of the homes lack air conditioning. And come the fall and winter seasons, five of the homes have lost their gas furnaces and the ability to keep their owners warm.

Lawyers for the residents say an amicable settlement appears to be in the best interests of both the residents and the company. Settlement of this case could be as simple as relocating the seven families to homes equivalent to what they have lost.

"These are people who work two jobs just to afford the mortgage, and their homes are the only thing they have," said Tallahassee Attorney Benjamin Crump. "All they want is to live in a decent home without fear the walls will crumble around them. The settlement is a small pittance to pay for years of hardship."

Dartland, who also owns stock in the St. Joe Company, says it's a monstrous irony that the St. Joe Company has desecrated the lives of residents in a city of the same name.

"This is about doing right by those who labored on behalf of St. Joe Company and the community, and by St. Joe itself and its shareholders," said Dartland. "St. Joe's response simply should be 'yes we can.'"

Among some of the damages to the residents' homes:

• At least one of the homes is no longer standing;
• One resident lived without hot water and heat for eleven months after her gas was disconnected due to broken pipes;
• Another five of the residents' homes have had their gas service to their furnace disconnected and have lived without central heat during the fall and winter;
• All but one of the residents' home has sustained damages to their plumbing and water systems;
• All residents' homes have sustained and endured damages to their sewer systems;
• All residents' homes have extensive structural damage;
• All residents have been unable to secure their homes as their exterior doors will not lock;
• Most of the residents have incurred damage to their HVAC systems due to the shifting of the walls;
• All residents have endured listening to the brick veneer and masonry of their homes crack and pop while they are trying to sleep;
• All residents have lived with insects and spiders constantly entering their homes through the cracks, with at least one home having snakes crawl through;
• One resident's home already has been condemned, and she faces fines of $250 a day from the City of Port St. Joe.

The Consumer Federation of the Southeast (CFSE) is a not-for-profit consumer advocacy group founded in 2003 and dedicated to consumer advocacy in the Southeastern United States. Our goal is to establish a vigorous, new, pro-consumer agenda built upon public awareness, consumer education, and coalition-building. For more information visit http://www.consumerfederationse.com