In re John Richards Homes Building Co.

During an ongoing lawsuit and countersuit between homebuyer Adell (defendant) and builder John Richards Homes (JRH) (plaintiff) over construction disputes, Adell filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against JRH, which the court dismissed because Adell knew or should have known his claims were subject to a bona fide dispute already being litigated. During the proceedings, Adell withheld critical information from his own bankruptcy attorney, hired a PR firm to publicize the bankruptcy and damage JRH's reputation, threatened JRH with criminal prosecution, and falsely told other JRH creditors they would only be compensated by joining his petition; after dismissal, JRH sought compensatory and punitive damages, alleging bad-faith filing.