Rush v. White Corp.

*1088 Spanish Peaks is a 3000-acre luxury resort in Big Sky Country, Montana, a development begun in 2002 by Spanish Peaks Holdings II, LLC (Holdings). The featured residences at Spanish Peaks were to be "high end settlement cabins," to be constructed close to a massive lodge, which was to be the centerpiece of the development, containing restaurants, stores, recreation facilities, and other amenities. Beginning in 2004 the five plaintiffs here acquired 13 properties in Spanish Peaks, eight undeveloped lots and five with cabins on them, one of which cost over $3,000,000. By July 2011 all but two of the 13 properties had been lost, usually by foreclosure.

In July 2012 a complaint was filed by one plaintiff, joined in September by the four others, whose first amended complaint named seven defendants, not including the developer Holdings, which was bankrupt. The essence of the case was fraud and negligence in construction and in soil remediation, the fundamental claim being that Spanish Peaks was a "landslide complex." Interestingly, though four of the five plaintiffs had taken title to the properties via LLCs, the lawsuit was brought in their individual names.

Four of the…