3.9M Jury Award

Millions for couple who sued condo association

Nearly $3.9M award from jury over ‘campaign of intimidation’

March 29, 2012

By ILIMA LOOMIS – Staff Writer (iloomis@mauinews.com) , The Maui News

WAILUKU – A Molokai couple was awarded nearly $3.9 million in damages last week after a Maui jury found they had been subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation in a dispute with their condo association.

Jim and Nancy Bevill had sued the association, its board of directors, the resident manager and a handyman for what attorney Terry Revere described as a “campaign of intimidation” that lasted at least six years. The Bevills said that they received death threats, had their car vandalized and experienced other forms of retaliation after speaking up about abuses at the Ke Nani Kai Condominium in Maunaloa.

Revere described the Bevills’ experience as “the west Molokai version of ‘Lord of the Flies,’ or the equivalent of a John Ford western, where an isolated town is run by a villain and his collection of thugs.”

Following an eight-week trial in the 2nd Circuit courtroom of Judge Rhonda Loo, jurors supported all 11 of the Bevills’ claims, including negligence, conspiracy, infliction of emotional distress, and violations of Hawaii’s condominium laws and the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The verdict included $500,000 in general damages and more than $3 million in punitive damages to be paid by the board of directors and condo association, as well as by three members of the board individually, the former resident manager and the handyman.