Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140193
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Real-Vest Inc. did not contest separate judgments of $26,888 and $19,000 filed recently in Franklin County Circuit Court.
"No longer do I have any comments," said Real-Vest secretary-treasurer John Meteney.
The future of Real-Vest - which attracted hundreds of customers through direct-mail giveaways - appears grim. The company recently closed its office in Franklin County, several months after media reports of the company's sales practices.
Real-Vest did not contest two lawsuits in Franklin County Circuit Court.
On July 2, Lee and Patty McLennan won a $26,888 judgment in their complaint that Developing World Inc. - an earlier incarnation of Real-Vest - sold them a lot in Lynville-on-the-Lake that was not suitable for a septic system.
Friday, Franklin Circuit Judge B.A. Davis III said he would sign a $19,000 award to Mary Driver Cook, a Roanoke woman who claimed that Universal Resorts Inc. - another Real-Vest firm - did not keep its promises about a lot in the Canterbury-on-the-Lake subdivision.
Meanwhile, Real-Vest is contesting a third lawsuit by an Amherst County couple who said they were shown an appraisal as an inducement to buy a Franklin County lot in 1988.
No hearing in that case has been scheduled.
Real-Vest was the main company in a Smith Mountain Lake development group that includes a time-share houseboat operation now in bankruptcy, a hotel property and fishing villas that have been foreclosed and subdivisions with uncompleted roads and amenities.
Partners in the concerns included lake developers David "Red" Dean and Dwight L. Dean; Roanoke real estate agent James Deyerle; and Meteney.
by CNB