CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office has filed a lawsuit alleging an unlicensed Raleigh County plumbing contractor defrauded at least seven consumers of more than $5,700 for projects he never finished.
The complaint, filed July 15 in Raleigh Circuit Court, names Jerry Smales as the defendant. It says Smales pretended to be a plumbing contractor even though he lacked any requisite licensing.
The lawsuit seeks to block Smales from any future contracting work in West Virginia, and it seeks payment of restitution and penalties. The alleged violations occurred through his operation of Mountaineer Plumbing and Beckley Plumbing, which he apparently operated from a UPS store in Beckley.
Morrisey
“Anyone engaging in home improvement contracting of any type must complete their work,” Morrisey said in a press release about the complaint. “When someone believes he can disregard his obligations to his customers, he should expect vigorous litigation from our office.”
The complaint says Smales' scheme victimized consumers dating back to December 2018. Most of the projects involved plumbing work, and all were in Raleigh County.
It says Smales collected individual payments totaling $5,766.78 but never completed the work on any of the seven projects. He also never provided refunds despite being asked to do so by consumers. The complaint alleges that neither Smales nor any of his workers were licensed plumbers.
The complaint as says that when consumers complained about shoddy or uncompleted work, Smales served them with fake court documents filled with false statements and stalked them on social media to get them to pay bills they did not rightfully owe.
The lawsuit accuses Smales of unfair or deceptive practices, failure to complete work as promised and failure to notify consumers of the three-day right to cancel. It seeks a court order to permanently prohibit Smales from any future contracting work, either as an owner, employee, subcontractor or other means.
The lawsuit also seeks a $5,000 penalty for each violation of the state’s consumer protection law, restitution for each consumer who has not yet obtained a judgment against the defendant and reimbursement for the state’s investigation and litigation expense.
Senior Assistant AG Norman Googel and Assistant AG Tonya Godfrey are handling the matter for the AG's office. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Darl Poling.
Raleigh Circuit Court case number 22-C-229