Evicted widow home for holidays
Blevins, homeowners' association settle suit 
By ALAN BERNSTEIN 
Courtesy Houston Chronicle Copyright 2001 ( 12 - 22 - 2001 )

 
With a stunned grin and a $300,000 lawsuit victory, the suburban Houston widow whose eviction in April became a rallying point for homeowners' rights got her house back Friday. 

"Thrilled, delighted, glad to be back home," Wenonah Blevins, 83, said after placing a plastic Christmas wreath on her front door and a red bow on her mailbox. 

Her homecoming was made possible by an out-of-court settlement of her lawsuit. She lived with a friend during months of legal wrangling with her homeowners association and the investor who paid $5,000 at auction for her $150,000 ranch-style home. 

In 1986, Blevins paid cash for the house in the Champions subdivision on FM 1960. But in the last two years, she failed to pay $814.50 in fees for such services as trash collection to the Champions Community Improvement Association. The association's lawyers moved to have the house sold to pay the debt, which rose to $3,756 with legal fees and penalties. 

After her check for about $800 was refused because the debt had mounted, deputy constables kicked Blevins out and had her furniture confiscated. The brick house, in a neighborhood shaded by towering pine trees, went to auction. 

Blevins sued, saying her eviction stemmed from deception. Many of her fellow homeowners were aghast at her predicament, which led to a debate in the Legislature about protecting homeowners against such confiscations. 

Blevins signed a settlement agreement Friday calling for Champions Community Improvement Association and its Houston law firm, Bartley and Spears, to pay her $300,000. Daniel Hilal, who bought the house at auction for $5,000, gets $95,000 in exchange for returning the house deed to Blevins, according to lawyers in the case. 

The homeowners association started working several months ago to return Blevins to her home after realizing that its law firm had evicted an elderly women who may not have realized that she risked losing her home, said lawyer Jeff Roberts, who represented Champions Community Improvement Association in the negotiations. Roberts is not associated with the Bartley and Spears firm, which did not return a telephone call from the Chronicle on Friday. 

"We wish Mrs. Blevins the best," Roberts said. "It's always been our goal to get her back in." 

Roberts and Blevins' lawyer, Marian Rosen, said negotiations were delayed by Hilal's demands for more than the $50,000 originally offered to him for returning the house. Hilal will not comment on the settlement, according to a man who answered the telephone at his business, First Capital Interest. 

The insurance policies of the homeowners association and the law firm will pay the money, Roberts said. 

Blevins, holding hands with Rosen in front of her empty living room, said the $300,000 settlement will help, "but it's just been a great trauma." 

She said she hoped to start living in the house by Christmas. 

The remaining legal fight is Blevins' lawsuit against the moving company that put her furniture in storage. Much of it was ruined by being warehoused without temperature control, she said. 

Businessman Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale's Gallery Furniture donated furniture to Blevins and delivered it Friday. 

The settlement calls for cancellation of Blevins' homeowner fee debt through this year. As for whether she will pay future fees promptly, Blevins said: "Most likely. Wouldn't you say so?" 

Rosen said Blevins may have failed to pay the bills because she battled pneumonia part of the time. Blevins said she ignored subsequent debt notices, which were addressed to her late husband, because she thought they were junk mail. 

After Blevins' eviction, the Legislature passed a bill limiting the powers of homeowners associations -- but not preventing them from foreclosing on houses whose owners owe fees. Blevins' state senator, Jon Lindsay, failed to win passage of a bill that would have protected her retroactively. 

About 1,000 houses are confiscated in Harris County in similar cases every year, according to property rights lawyer David Kahne. 

Surrounded by friends who helped clean her house Friday, Blevins said her case put the focus on homeowners' rights anyway. 

"I think it has served a purpose," she said. 

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