Celebrity Justice
Joe Francis Gives Bad Jacuzzi

So ... you drop $6.5 mil on a home. Since Joe Francis once owned it, it's reasonable to assume the hot tub and the wine cellar are A-OK, right? Wrong.



The not-so-proud owners of the house are suing both Joe Francis and the person who sold him the house -- famed NBA coach Rudy Tomjanovich -- claiming more than $3 million in damages.

Francis is listed as the owner/builder who "substantially remodeled the Property" from 2000 to 2003. He sold it to Rudy Tomjanovich and his wife in 2004. Rudy then sold it to the plaintiff, Steven Bardack -- the guy who founded Strata Capital and also served as a head honcho at Yahoo.

Among other things, Bardack claims the Tomjanovichs defrauded him by not disclosing problems with the decks, the paint, the caulking, the walls, the travertine, the skylight, the windows, the glass -- basically, he claims the house is a disaster.

The suit alleges Francis had a duty to make sure the remodel was up to par -- but the final product was allegedly far from it.

We're guessing we know why the Jacuzzi is on the fritz ...

Joe just gave us this statement: "After I built the house, I sold it to Rudy Tomjanovich. I never spent one single night in that house and only visited a handful of times. But, I'm sorta bummed out that it might cost me $3 million and I never got to have one naked girl in that jacuzzi. Thank God for insurance."

Reader Comments

(Page 2 of 2) Previous 15 Comments

16. Who ARE these people??? The only name I recognized was the one the first post mentioned, and it didn't even have anything to do with the story here. I was gonna ask #1 about it, but decided he was just off his meds.

Posted at 10:53PM on Dec 29th 2008 by Who are these people???

17. I can think of a lot of things Joe Francis is liable for - but I don't understand how he figures into this case if he sold the property to another person and that person sold it to the yahoo guy. Shouldn't the actual seller be the only one sued by the purchaser for improper disclosure? The one who bought the house from Francis would have to be the one going after Francis, unless there's a statute of limitations. What kind of laws do they have in that state? Can people really start going down the list of past owners in the title search to sue?

Posted at 3:34AM on Dec 30th 2008 by jwoolman

18. i agree jwoolman. doesn't joe francis's liability end once he has sold the house. is he suppose to be responsible for damages the next owned might have caused?

Posted at 11:50AM on Dec 30th 2008 by whoosh

19. So whats the matter people dont do a home inspection if the price tag is over one million?

sounds like the buyers are idiots with more dollars than cents...

Posted at 1:39PM on Dec 30th 2008 by Moe

Previous 15 Comments