The owners of five Baton Rouge apartment complexes, three storage-unit facilities and one carwash have filed a civil lawsuit against A.C. Lewis Management for allegedly stealing revenue and buying equipment and services for A.C. Lewis Management’s gain.
The complaint, which was filed Sep. 24, 2012, claims A.C. Lewis Management charged plaintiffs’ properties more than $200,000 over the previous two years in payroll for employees not employed by the plaintiffs, among a litany of other allegations.
The plaintiffs include Apartments at Summer Place, Broadmoor Plantation Apartments, Mirage Villa, Quail Court and Maino Storage—all members of The Lismore T. and Mary Anne Maino Family Trust of California.
Brandon Black, an attorney representing A.C. Lewis Management for the Jones Walker law firm, says the allegations stem from a misunderstanding between the property owners and A.C. Lewis Management.
“We of course denied any of that happened,” Black says.
A.C. “Bubba” Lewis, owner of the management company, was unavailable for comment. The case is slated to go to trial in September 2014 in U.S. federal court in Baton Rouge.
The complaint says the defendants, including Cullen Lewis and Brian May, allegedly charged plaintiffs for payroll expenses for a third-party maintenance company, Multifamily Maintenance Services—which is “believed to be directly or indirectly owned by one or more defendants, while at the same time separately charging plaintiffs for the maintenance services provided by MMS.”
If defendants are found to have breached their obligations, the complaint says, compensatory damages will be determined at trial. According to the complaint, the defendants also allegedly:
• Charged more than $50,000 over the past two years to one or more of the plaintiffs for AT&T services, “even though none of plaintiffs’ respective properties utilized AT&T services.”
• Made deposit reversals of more than $135,000 in the past two years from the plaintiffs’ accounts, and wrote themselves checks for more than $250,000 in the past two years from the plaintiffs’ accounts “without any justifiable explanation.” In one such example, employees of Summer Place living at the apartment complex rent-free were allegedly moved “to the Bridgeway property,” which is allegedly owned directly or indirectly by A.C. Lewis. The defendants then allegedly wrote checks from Summer Place’s accounts to ACLM for rent.
• Charged plaintiffs for more than $100,000 in the past two years for “other purported expenses without any justifiable explanation,” and received equipment and services that were not purchased for the plaintiffs’ properties.
• Charged plaintiffs’ properties more than $113,000 for “Real Page services” that “were utilized for defendants’ central office.”
• Placed all insurance on plaintiffs’ properties in defendants’ name rather than plaintiffs’ names. Therefore, defendants “received all payments for insurance losses pursuant to claims relating to plaintiffs’ properties.” The complaint says the defendants were not authorized to place the insurance in their names and collect and retain insurance reimbursements.
• Sent their employees to Summer Place “to perform maintenance services” and then charged Summer Place “an exorbitant rate,” despite the fact that Summer Place employed a maintenance person.
• Had an employee distribute fliers at Summer Place announcing rental deals at Lewis’ property.
