Home sellers: Olivia Newton-John, hubby stiffed us!
Tags: Bill Fleck, Bob Hackney, Grease, Heritage Oaks, John Easterling, Martin County, Olivia Newton-John, Tequesta, Xanadu
| Wednesday 4 February 2009 6:46 pm
It seems Grease star Olivia Newton-John has yet to find her Xanadu.
The 60-year-old Aussie and her new husband are being sued in a Martin County court for walking away from a contract to buy a home in Tequesta.
Easterling and Newton-John
Newton-John and John Easterling, 57, the owner a Jupiter-based business that sells Amazon herbs, allegedly failed to show at the Nov. 28 closing on a $2.25 million home in the Intracoastal neighborhood of Heritage Oaks.
They didn’t call, didn’t write, nothing.
At least, that’s according to a lawsuit filed this week by the sellers, luxury home builder Perry Lap and his missus, Joanne.
“It seems that many celebrities have a lot on their plates,” said the Laps’ lawyer, Bill Fleck. “And with egos and things like that, they don’t attend to some necessary things and they don’t concern themselves with things like contracts.
“Well, there’s a contract. On top of it, this was a short sale,” Fleck explained, referring to the down-market practice of selling at a loss with the mortgage holder’s blessing. “It involved a lot of work to get everybody on the same page.”
The Tequesta home
The Laps are going after the singer/actress and Easterling for their escrowed deposit, $100,000, and at least $10,000 in decorative changes requested by Newton-John. That includes a paint job.
Court records show Easterling and the woman he married secretly at the Jupiter Beach Resort in July signed the purchase agreement for the 4,500-square-foot, four-bedroomer in August. By November, the Realtors involved couldn’t track down the couple.
The process server did, handing Newton-John the notice she was getting sued at Easterling’s old home, also in Heritage Oaks, during dinner-time Tuesday.
Easterling, who once said an Amazon tribal chief’s concoction gave him telepathic powers, didn’t respond to Page2Live’s telepathic waves to his cellphone.
But his lawyer, Bob Hackney, did call.
“We’re surprised (about the lawsuit) because we were going to sue to get our deposit back,” Hackney said. “They (the Laps) couldn’t get the short sale approved on time.
“John and Olivia are still looking for a new home. They’re staying in John’s place but they want something together.”
“Amazon John,” as he is known in the natural drug business, runs a multi-level network sales outfit called Amazon Herb Co. It sells rain forest plants to Westerners in need of sexual and energy boosts.
He and Newton-John fell in love on a trip to South America in 2007.
Perry Lap/ Mastercraft homes got stuck with that white elephant house and are just upset the bank is going to repo it. The house is weird and Heritage Oaks is about 15 minutes west of the Intracoastal Waterway on a brown water shallow canal.
House isn’t worth 1/2 of the sale price so when they backed out it was good business sense on their part.
It appears from the suit that Perry Lap/Mastercraft were ready willing and able to close on the closing date and that the Realators could not locate the buyers. Whether or not the house may be worth “1/2 that” or not, the buyers signed the contract and failed to abide by its terms. Also, I am familiar with Heritage Oaks, and due to no wake zones between it and the Intercoastal, it is less than a 5 minute boatride to the main intercoastal, and about 15 minutes to the ocean…actually a good location if you can deal with the fixed bridge (although city plans are to raise it soon.)
Apparently whoever made the comment about the white elephant has never been inside the home. It is an absolutely amazing home. It is definitely a natures paradise with an abundance of wrap-around patios and scenic vistas. I understand first hand that if the selling agent communicated with the listing agent, this would have never gotten this far.
times are tough for everyone and Mr. Lap has done wrong to a lot of subcontractors in doing work in teasro and teasro resever, so what goes around comes around, so good lock Mr. Lap now you now how it feels
Jose:
I give Mr. Fleck the benefit of the doubt that he was not aware of the facts when he degraded my clients. I am sure he did not know the following:
The Laps did not receive their bank approval to close until Dec. 4, a week after the contract expired on Nov. 28.
The Contract was signed in Aug., set to close Oct 31, and the Laps could not close. They asked for and got an extension until Nov. 28, not beyond.
John & Olivia stayed in town for Thanksgiving (Nov. 27) in case the Laps could close. They had not receive bank approval, and were not prepared to close.
Your comment that they couldn’t be tracked down is not accurate, they were at their house two blocks from the subject property.
Isn’t it interesting that the Laps got my letter demanding the return of our deposit on Jan. 27, and we received their lawsuit on Feb. 4? You figure it out.
Don’t pick on Olivia because she is a celebrity. She is also a good person, and has done nothing wrong.
Bob Hackney
It looks like the Laps couldn’t get their act together in time and the contract simply expired.
For them to go after the Easterlings deposit money is creepy.
Stop trying this case on the web. I am sure the Easterling’s are nice people just as the Lap’s are. Not one person including the attorney has all the facts that occurred. No one has bothered to get the correct information from the individuals who have first hand knowledge of the facts. Including the buyers agent or her broker. This whole mess would be cleared up if all the parties would communicate.
Mr. Hackney is gracious enough to give Mr. Fleck the benefit of the doubt. However, he will soon find out, if he hasn’t already, the caliber of people he is dealing with. Bill Fleck is one of the shysters that give lawyers a bad name. He is only slightly more respectable than his client, Mr. Lap, who has not only “misppropriated” millions of dollars on numerous building projects, but in the process has ruined peoples’ lives.
If you will do a little digging, you will find out that Mr. Lap did not have full title on December 4 as he claims and could not have consummated the sale. This is a classic Fleck/Lap ploy designed to cheat another unsuspecting mark. What you should be featuring is an expose on Perry Lap. The sad part is, for all the swindling he has done, he has nothing to show for it since he has gambled it all away.
I would like to let you know a little something about perry Lapp. He is a horrible builder and has taken over $60,000’s from my husband and I when he was building our dream home. He has just left the job and gambled our money NOT HIS MONEY!! He has done this to many clients who he was building for. He stopped building my house for about a year. Then we had to spend an exuberent amount of money to hire another builder to finish the job. He is a very big crook and should be arrested and go to jail for what he has done to all these people. He did not pay my subcontractors, therefor they all put leins on my new home. He made us look horrible. I truely hope he gets what he deserves, that is jail time. He has swindled one to many people. On top of all that alot of the work he has done to my new home was all mistakes. He truely screwed up big time.
HELLO JOSE, JUST WOULD LIKE TO LET YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS A SUIT AGAINST PERRY LAPP AND MASTER CRAFT DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS A FRAUD CASE OF $1000,000.00 FROM ARI BEN-YISHAY M.D. AGAINST MASTER CRAFT DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS A COURT CASE IN THE US DISTRICT COURT. SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA. CASE# 0814046-CIV-MOORE/LYNCH. YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK INTO THIS AS THIS IS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. PERRY LAPP IS A CROOK AND A THEIF. HE SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE. ENOUGH WITH HIM GETTING AWAY WITH TAKING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM INNOCENT PEOPLE.
The lawsuit filed in the Ben-Yishay case is frivalous. The deposit was ok’d to be released to Perry per contract. The buyer is also bringing suit againt the attorney who held the initial escrow. The attorney is an excellent and trustworthy attorney i have known and used for years. As for the other lawsuits i don’t have an opinion on. This one i have personal knowledge of and it is going to be tossed out. I am not defending Perry Lap… Just the attorney Joe Grosso…
The list of subs that have been mis-treated by Perry Lapp is certainly longer than the list of homeowners that have been victimized, but both sides have felt the pain he has inflicted. The scars he has left are vivid and painful. Lives will never be the same because of him, and nothing that could be done will ever rectify the evil damage left in his wake. And unfortunatly Fleck has chosen to be his Judas…to aid in the damage he does for illgotten gain. For certain Perry Lapp should not be allowed to continue to ruin lives while masquerading as a builder, and Fleck does not deserve to be called an attorney and should be disbarred, but unfortunatly doing so would only serve to help prevent future damage. While clearly niether of them has a conscience, and they worship money while scorning morals, it is the people they have hurt who long feel the pain, and suffer from thier mis-deeds.
The Palm Beach Post would do well to investigate, and run stories to ferret out the truth, so that future damage might be limited.
It is sinmple. the seller couldn’t get bank approval on their “short sale” in time and then have the audacity to sue ANYONE? Never mind the celeb factor - thi sis ssimple biz’ and the seller should have to pay Olivia’s court fees when this is filed away under “NONSENSE”.
My blog palmbeachflorida-amazon.blogspot.com may explain why Mr. John Easterling behaves the way he does.
Rosie Waller
[...] house-hunting was marred by an incident in which they were accused of reneging on a contract to buy a $2.25 million-home in the nearby Heritage Oaks neighborhood. The lawsuit [...]
[...] Grease star Olivia Newton-John and her new husband are getting sued in a Martin County court for not showing up at the closing of what would have been their new home. Click here for more. [...]
Seller could not produce a clean title. Not buyer’s fault. That’s why real estate deals are in writing and earnest money paid to escrow. Buyer had every right to receive their earnest money and move on. As simple as it gets.
Olivia and her guy should move down here in Texas, weather’s great, taxes low and plenty of beautiful places to live. Dallas is weird though…