Couple still awaiting $95,000 settlement

CHARLESTON - A Kanawha County couple awarded $95,000 in a March 2005 trial say they still haven't seen a cent of it and that the man ordered to pay it is trying to find loopholes around obeying the order.

Toney Bumgarner and Dina Bumgarner allege in a new complaint filed Feb. 8 in Kanawha Circuit Court that contractor Alan M. Terranova has created three new companies to hide his money from creditors.

Terranova owns Terranova Land Company, Terranova Land Corporation, DC&H Construction Services and A.J. Excavating, and the Bumgarners charge that the latter three were created for the sole reason of shielding his money.

"Upon information and belief, the Plaintiffs ... submit that said entities have been established by the defendant ... for the purpose of shielding Defendant's personal and/or business assets from seizure to his respective creditors, including Plaintiffs herein," the claim states, "and with the sole intent and purpose of defrauding legitimate creditors of the Defendant."

Terranova originally was hired in September 2001 to build the Bumgarners a residence on 115 Newcomer Lane in South Charleston. The couple had a long list of complaints once they moved into the house a year later that they filed in their original complaint on July 10, 2002.

Included in that lawsuit were 21 complaints, most notably: the back hill of the residence slipping and subsiding, the dining room wall being bowed, the pocket doors of the residence being damaged and installed incorrectly, the hardwood floors of the residence separating and cracking, a hump in the carpet and no access door was made to the hot tub of the residence.

Dina Bumgarner also complained that she fell into a 12-foot ditch in the backyard caused by the property subsiding, and that Terranova withheld information regarding subsidence.

In a trial that occurred Feb. 28-March 1, 2005 and was overseen by Kanawha Circuit Judge Irene Berger, Terranova admitted that he was aware of the subsidence, according to the Bumgarners' new complaint.

A jury found in favor of the Plaintiffs in the amount of $95,000, which they claim Terranova has avoided paying by forming the three new companies.

The Bumgarners state in their complaint that they "require a piercing of the veil of these limited liability companies and corporations to permit legitimate creditors of the Defendant ... to enforce their respective judgments against the Defendant."

They add that Terranova "has transferred assets with the actual intent to hinder, delay and defraud creditors… without receiving reasonable equivalent value in exchange for said transfers, thereby making said transfers voidable."

The Bumgarners are seeking an amount to be determined by a jury and are represented by Patrick L. Cottrell. Kanawha Circuit Judge Jim Stucky has been assigned the case.

Kanawha County Circuit Court case number 06-C-228