Smith-Cade v. LSSI and Kim Holder Sixth Amended Complaint

LSSI was ordered to answer this Sixth Amended Complaint months ago and so far, has not done so. We are still waiting for requested discovery and to reschedule two LSSI employee, depositions that were canceled in December 2009. One of the deponents was Larry Johnson, the director of LSSI for the southern region. Deposition was canceled with little notice and not even an offer to reschedule it since then.

Is it just me or do others detect a pattern of avoidance by LSSI?

Paragraph 62 (a) and (b) contains some very interesting information. We obtained this information with the permission of the judge minutes after the court granted leave to amend for a sixth amended complaint. LSSI attempted to suppress this information with a motion in discovery and the court denied that motion after an in camera review. LSSI employee records were not confidential and worthy of a court order protecting them. Judge directed us to the clerk's office where my attorney picked up a file of documents three inches thick assembled and provided by LSSI. A quick review of that file allowed us to find the info in paragraph 62.

We filed the Sixth Amended with leave of the court and LSSI responded with some bullshit that the sixth amended complaint contains information that "surprises" them. Makes no sense since LSSI is supposed to know and follow Council of Accreditation standards, DCFS rules and procedures and be aware of their employee's strengths and weaknesses by evaluating employees annually. How LSSI can allege surprise is pretty silly under those circumstances. LSSI placed the documents in that file released to my attorney in November 2009 that are contained in the Sixth Amended and they are suddenly "surprised". It's ludicrous!

If anything, the Sixth Amended gives LSSI additional information that wasn't in the Fifth Amended to better defend themselves and inform them more fully of the allegations against them. LSSI's motion to dismiss the Sixth Amended was denied and LSSI was ordered to answer. Instead, they filed another motion to dismiss. The real question is where is the Answer the court ordered? How much longer is LSSI going to evade that one?

LSSI had full knowledge of what was in that thick folder the court released to us right after the November 2009 hearing and motion for leave to amend. After all, LSSI photocopied the documents. Now they claim they are surprised by the Sixth Amended complaint. Yeah, right! (sarcasm intended)

One discovery response states that the Seventh Edition Council of Accreditation standards are no longer available. However, when I checked the COA website, that is contradicted by the COA themselves. LSSI can obtain these documents and have been requested to do so in discovery. Contact Karen Callendar and she'll help you out. Not difficult. LSSI knows how and who to contact at COA since they just got re-accredited by the COA. Have to wonder if they disclosed the lawsuit I filed during their self-study? Or that the employee manual we got in discovery is dated 1997?

I was also informed that Kim Holder has left LSSI. Details were not revealed. Not being employed by LSSI doesn't change the fact she's the defendant in this lawsuit.

Trial date of December 7 was pushed back due to LSSI not being responsive in discovery. Next case management conference is January 31. Hoping a new trial date is set then.

Mediation for this case was held yesterday and no settlement was reached. During mediation, I re-experienced every bit of trauma LSSI flung at me in 2002. LSSI didn't even make an offer that would even start to make the damage they inflicted on us right. Very arrogant behavior by LSSI. I walked into mediation sensing it would fail and knowing LSSI would react the way they did. Kim Holder did not attend and Larry Johnson was present. The arrogance LSSI continues to display after admitting wrongdoing in depositions is just astounding. Kim Holder is still an individual defendant named in this lawsuit and she didn't show up at all.

My apologies for not blogging for awhile. Our house was close to destroyed in the May 2009 windstorm and until the ceilings caved in late January 2010, we had no idea that water infiltrated the attic when the roof was damaged.

To repair the house, we had to empty and gut every ceiling in every room and replace it. The dust, mold and fiberglass caused asthma attacks and a massive lung infection and I was living in hotels for months while the remediation work was done. Lung biopsy without any anesthesia was terrifying.

Contractor walked out not completing the work so we were forced to finish the repairs ourselves. This also resulted in one hell of a fight with our homeowners insurance to get the claim adjusted where we received fair compensation. We are living in the still incomplete house working on it as we get funds and time. Getting this done with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and back pain isn't easy. Needless to say, being homeless increased my existing depression and anxiety attacks.

Being forced to climb ladders when I had such severe shortness of breath and having to HEPA vacuum tons of coal dust, debris and fiberglass out of the house myself because the contractor decided not to, also slowing things down. Five rooms of ceilings that were replaced, the contractor left out the wire used to suspend the ceiling grid. One room, the ceiling collapsed already. There is a pending consumer fraud investigation at the moment against the contractor.

To clear the house out to get the repair work done, it was necessary to put everything in long term storage. Basic survival repairs had to be our first priority when the contractor left us stranded so sorry to say, the contents of the file cabinets are in a remote corner of the garage still. The more household contents in our way, the harder it is to finish the repairs and hunting down bank statements from 2002-2006 has been a very low priority. The file boxes are covered in dust which will set off an allergic reaction so not really all that crazy to spend time out in the garage looking for those 2002-2006 documents. Cold also triggers asthma attacks. I also can't lift more than ten pounds and that shelf unit with the files is buried under furniture and other items still in storage.

Most of our personal property and furniture was ruined by the fiberglass contamination so we ended up having to replace anything upholstered, clothing and bed linens since it's impossible to dry clean fiberglass out. Insurance only partially paid. Every day in this house is a scavenger hunt since we are not sure where half of our belongings are at the moment other than packed up in a box somewhere.

The asthma attacks and lung infection lasted for months and I'm finally getting a little better but once asthmatic, always asthmatic. In fact, in retrospect, that "flu bug" I had during depositions with LSSI in November 2009 might not have been the flu at all but mold in the furnace duct work. The day we turned on the heat in November 2009, I got sick as a dog, wheezing and coughing severely. LSSI's attorney tried to kick me out of the deposition for coughing. Sorry Jim, I had a legal right to be there and asthma is a protected disability. I wasn't contagious at all and I told you as much when you were ranting and raving on the record.

I ended up living in one room with an air purifier and nothing but a mattress and a TV set. To keep from wheezing, I lived in the house wearing a respirator since our insurance company was too cheap to provide a hotel room for me and would not do so until two doctors demanded it happen. Those months living like John Travolta in that boy-in-the-bubble movie were utter hell. Living in hotels isn't all it's cracked up to be. Not vacation-like or luxurious at all.

Insurance denied any claim if it was under the house so it cost us a pretty penny out of pocket to rip out those contaminated ducts and reroute them through the attic. Post storm flooding rotted out the bathroom floor so that was another out of pocket repair bill that we didn't expect. We had tons of fun pumping the crawl space ourselves, replacing the vapor liner and installing our own sump pumps. Had to dig trenches for the gutter water to get it away from the foundation.

I had to get central air installed to filter things during the summer to avoid getting sick again. That too came out of our pockets. Contractor bid but decided against cleaning the duct work so I had to hire another company to get that done. No choice since the entire heating system sucked in any fiberglass, mold and dust floating in the air during the repair work. Keep recirculating that crap and I get sick again.

LSSI's attorney also tried to hold me in contempt for assisting my attorney with research and assisting him with the case (perfectly normal to consult the legal client and I've done nothing wrong). The court denied that motion. This was the same hearing where Larry Johnson testified evasively in support of some motion LSSI made (and lost) to avoid discovery.

Last hearing on May 17, there were some pretty harsh words out of LSSI's attorney directed at me. To respond, no, I don't want to come to your office and copy the overdue discovery for you. LSSI has over 2000 employees and surely one of them knows how to operate a scanner and photo copy machine. You have a legal secretary so let her do it. Dude, what my attorney and I do on this case is protected by attorney-client privilege so why are you even asking questions like that? No, I need to get home and deliver some lumber to the crew refinishing my hardwood floors, Jim. Then I want to go to the hotel, take off these damn control top panty hose and rest since I just had a frigging lung biopsy a few days earlier. After I get a nap, I'd like to go see my dogs who are sitting in a boarding facility since none of us have a place to live right now. Then I'll stop by and see the terminally ill dog at the hospital and see how she's doing. The dog has since died. RIP sweetie. Let's just say this ranting by LSSI's attorney on May 17 was really odd and very upsetting.

The hardwood floor work that was done resulted in a bad finish and the only way to fix it is to empty the entire damn house and re-sand and re-varnish it all. Rooms with bad ceilings, need to empty them to avoid getting dirt and fiberglass all over the contents. Due to the poor workmanship, the less we haul back in only to have to repack it and move it back out again to correct the bad workmanship, the better. What's the point of moving those files back in, putting them in the file cabinet when I'll just have to pack them up so we can put the file cabinets back in storage. (no, can't move the file cabinet fully loaded without the furniture falling apart)

I'm tired of basically being a squatter in my own house but it is what it is. Insurance isn't going to pay to correct bad workmanship. If we want it fixed right, we are going to have to pay for it ourselves.

Let's just say the house repair situation lowered my opinion of insurance adjusters quite a bit. Dealing with Church Mutual, the insurance company for LSSI yesterday, my opinion of insurance adjusters sank even lower. LSSI is well insured and really are not facing any financial consequences for their actions other than paying their deductible. All legal costs are covered by their policy. Church Mutual, of course they want to settle for as little as possible so they protect their stockholders and bottom line. Insurance claims are routinely undervalued and determined by statistics and computer models.

Justice has nothing to do with what occurred yesterday. I can't take the insulting behavior hurled at me yesterday personally. I don't feel discouraged in the least by what happened in mediation yesterday. In fact, I went into mediation with full realization it would not go well. I participated in good faith and that's all that is required of me.

LSSI didn't want to settle for a fair amount so we will take this to trial. The mediation judge had all sorts of scary stuff to say about how settling today would spare me mental anguish waiting another year for a day in court. So what I spend another two grand on deposing LSSI employees after coming this far? That would include another deposition of Kim Holder who muttered "I don't know" or "I don't recall" over 50 times while she spent most of the deposition pawing through my file. She was supposed to be better prepared that that and didn't even bother bringing a copy of my file to the deposition. What's another year of mental anguish after losing a chance to adopt a child? Or eight years of litigation? I've compromised enough already. If it takes another year or even two to feel I got justice, then I'm willing to make that commitment to this lawsuit.

In retrospect, I think LSSI's insisting on mediation was done so they could once again throw their weight around and attempt to intimidate me. Mediation was a very high pressure situation. Buying me off isn't easy. You can't put a dollar value on the life I wanted for myself and will never have sitting down with an insurance company in mediation. It also doesn't satisfy my need for answers to why LSSI did what they did, why they ignored the standard of care set forth by DCFS and COA and my need to confront them at trial.

I knew going into this lawsuit that it would take time and it would be hard. I don't give up that easily and I don't sacrifice my principles just to get unpleasantness over with. I'm sure in the hell not going to settle this case for some crumbs off LSSI's table. Another year of litigation is well worth it to me.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/46030049/Smith-cade-6th-amend-complaintwpd