How Many Lawsuits Have Their Been Agains Trump for Nonpayment of Bills

During the Atlantic Metropolis casino boom in the 1980s, Philadelphia cabinet-builder Edward Friel Jr. landed a $400,000 contract to build the bases for slot machines, registration desks, confined and other cabinets at Harrah's at Trump Plaza.

The family cabinetry business organization, founded in the 1940s past Edward'south male parent, finished its piece of work in 1984 and submitted its final bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort's builder.

Edward's son, Paul, who was the firm's accountant, still remembers the corporeality of that bill more than 30 years subsequently: $83,600. The reason: the money never came. "That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Company… which has been around since my granddad," he said.

Donald Trump frequently portrays himself as a savior of the working grade who volition "protect your job." But a Usa TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past 3 decades — and a big number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.

At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other regime filings reviewed by the Us TODAY NETWORK, document people who accept accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their piece of work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Bailiwick of jersey. A carpet visitor. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Existent estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several constabulary firms that in one case represented him in these suits and others.

Trump'due south companies take also been cited for 24 violations of the Off-white Labor Standards Act since 2005 for declining to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Section of Labor data. That includes 21 citations against the defunct Trump Plaza in Atlantic Urban center and three against the also out-of-business Trump Mortgage LLC in New York. Both cases were resolved past the companies agreeing to pay dorsum wages.

Litigator in chief

In addition to the lawsuits, the review constitute more than 200 mechanic's liens — filed past contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his backdrop claiming they were owed money for their work — since the 1980s. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, North.Y., air conditioning and heating visitor to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York Urban center real manor cyberbanking firm. On just one project, Trump'due south Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show that at to the lowest degree 253 subcontractors weren't paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.

The actions in total paint a portrait of Trump'south sprawling arrangement frequently declining to pay small businesses and individuals, so sometimes tying them upwards in courtroom and other negotiations for years. In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources. Some just requite upward the fight, or settle for less; some have ended up in bankruptcy or out of business altogether.

Trump and his daughter Ivanka, in an interview with USA TODAY, shrugged off the lawsuits and other claims of non-payment. If a company or worker he hires isn't paid fully, the Trumps said, it's because The Trump Arrangement was unhappy with the work.

"Let'south say that they do a job that'southward not proficient, or a job that they didn't finish, or a job that was manner late. I'll deduct from their contract, admittedly," Trump said. "That's what the country should be doing."

To be sure, Trump and his companies take prevailed in many legal disputes over missing payments, or reached settlements that cloud the terms reached by the parties.

Notwithstanding, the consequent circumstances laid out in those lawsuits and other not-payment claims raise questions about Trump's judgment equally a businessman, and as a potential commander- in- chief. The number of companies and others alleging he hasn't paid suggests that either his companies take a poor rails record hiring workers and assessing contractors, or that Trump businesses renege on contracts, refuse to pay, or consistently attempt to change payment terms after work is consummate as is alleged in dozens of court cases.

In the interview, Trump repeatedly said the cases were "a long fourth dimension ago." However, even as he campaigns for the presidency, new cases are standing. Simply last month, Trump Miami Resort Management LLC settled with 48 servers at his Miami golf resort over failing to pay overtime for a special event. The settlements averaged nigh $800 for each worker and as high as $3,000 for 1, according to court records. Some workers put in 20-hour days over the 10-solar day Passover event at Trump National Doral Miami, the lawsuit contends. Trump'south team initially argued a contractor hired the workers, and he wasn't responsible, and counter-sued the contractor enervating payment.

"Trump could accept settled information technology right off the bat, but they wanted to fight it out, that'south their M.O." said Rod Hannah, of Plantation, Fla., the lawyer who represented the workers, who he said are forbidden from talking about the case in public. "They're known for their aggressiveness, and if you accept the money, why not?"

Like cases have cropped up with Trump'due south facilities in California and New York, where hourly workers, bartenders and wait staff have sued with a range of allegations from not letting workers take breaks to not passing along tips to servers. Trump'due south company settled the California example, and the New York case is pending.

Trump'due south Doral golf resort too has been embroiled in recent not-payment claims by two different paint firms, with ane case settled and the other pending. Last month, his company's refusal to pay one Florida painter more $30,000 for work at Doral led the estimate in the example to guild foreclosure of the resort if the contractor isn't paid.

Juan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, in Due south Florida, has been waiting more than two years to become paid for his work at the Doral. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump'southward course, then filed a lawsuit asking a Florida judge to intervene.

In courtroom testimony, the manager of the full general contractor for the Doral renovation admitted that a decision was made not to pay The Paint Spot because Trump "already paid enough." As the construction manager spoke, "Trump's trial attorneys visibly winced, began breathing heavily, and attempted to make center contact" with the witness, the estimate noted in his ruling.

That, and other evidence, convinced the approximate The Paint Spot'southward merits was credible. He ordered last calendar month that the Doral resort be foreclosed on, sold, and the proceeds used to pay Enriquez the money he was owed. Trump'southward attorneys have since filed a motility to filibuster the sale, and the contest continues.

Enriquez still hasn't been paid.

Trump frequently boasts that he will bring jobs back to America, including Tuesday in a primary-election night victory oral communication at his golf social club in suburban New York City. "No affair who you are, nosotros're going to protect your job," Trump said Tuesday. "Because let me tell you, our jobs are being stripped from our country like we're babies."

But the lawsuits evidence Trump's organisation wages Goliath vs David legal battles over small amounts of money that are negligible to the billionaire and his executives — but devastating to his much-smaller foes.

In 2007, for example, dishwasher Guy Dorcinvil filed a federal lawsuit against Trump's Mar-a-Lago Gild resort in Palm Beach, Fla., alleging the club failed to pay time-and-a-one-half for overtime he worked over 3 years and the company failed to continue proper time records for employees.

Mar-a-Lago LLC agreed to pay Dorcinvil $7,500 to settle the case in 2008. The terms of the settlement agreement includes a standard argument that Mar-a-Lago does non admit error and forbids Dorcinvil or his lawyers from talking nigh the case, according to court records.

Developers with histories of non paying contractors are a very minor minority of the industry, said Colette Nelson, principal advocacy officer of the American Subcontractors Association. Simply late or missing payments tin be devastating for small businesses and their employees.

"Real manor is a tough and aggressive business, just most concern people don't gear up out to brand their money by breaking the companies that they do business with," she said, stressing she couldn't speak straight to the specifics of cases in Trump's record. "Only at that place are a few."

In the interview, Trump said that complaints represent a tiny fraction of his business concern empire and dealings with contractors and employees, insisting all are paid fairly. "We pay everybody what they're supposed to be paid, and nosotros pay everybody on time," he said. "And we employ thousands and thousands of people. OK?"

Despite the Trumps' exclamation that his their companies only reject payment to contractors "when somebody does a bad job," he has sometimes offered to hire those same contractors again. It'south a puzzling plough of events, since most people who take a poor experience with a contractor, and who refuse to pay and even fight the contractor in court, aren't likely to offer to rehire them.

Nevertheless, such was the example for the Friels. After submitting the final nib for the Plaza casino cabinet-building in 1984, Paul Friel said he got a telephone call asking that his male parent, Edward, come to the Trump family's offices at the casino for a meeting. There Edward, and some other contractors, were called in one by one to meet with Donald Trump and his blood brother, Robert Trump.

"He sat in a room with ix guys," Paul Friel said. "We found out some of them were carpet guys. Some of them were glass guys. Plumbers. You name it."

In the meeting, Donald Trump told his begetter that the company'southward work was inferior, Friel said, even though the general contractor on the casino had canonical information technology. The bottom line, Trump told Edward Friel, was the visitor wouldn't become the final payment. Then, Friel said Trump added something that struck the family unit equally baroque. Trump told his dad that he could work on other Trump projects in the future.

"Await a infinitesimal," Paul Friel said, recalling his family'due south reaction to his dad's account of the meeting. "Why would the Trump family want a company who they say their piece of work is inferior to piece of work for them in the hereafter?"

Asked about the meeting this week, Trump said, "Was the piece of work bad? Was it bad work?" And, and so, after being told that the general contractor had approved information technology, Trump added, "Well, see hither's the affair. You lot're talking nigh, what, 30 years agone?"

Ivanka Trump added that whatsoever number of disputes over late or deficient payments that were found over the past few decades pale in comparing to the thousands of checks Trump companies cut each calendar month.

"Nosotros have hundreds of millions of dollars of construction projects underway. And we take, for the nearly function, exceptional contractors on them who get paid, and get paid quickly," she said, adding that she doubted any contractor complaining in courtroom or in the printing would admit they delivered substandard work. "But it would be irresponsible if my father paid contractors who did lousy work. And he doesn't do that."

Merely, the Friels' story is similar to experiences of hundreds of other contractors over the casino-boom decade in Atlantic City. Legal records, New Jersey Casino Control Commission records and contemporaneous local paper stories recounted time and again tales near the Trumps paying late or renegotiating deals for dimes on the dollar.

A one-half-decade after the Friels' encounter, in 1990, as Trump neared the opening of his third Atlantic City casino, he was once again attempting to pay contractors less than he owed. In casino committee records of an audit, it was revealed that Trump's companies owed a total of $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors on the Taj Mahal projection. Some already had sued Trump, the state inspect said; others were negotiating with Trump to try to recover what they could. The companies and their hundreds of workers had installed walls, chandeliers, plumbing, lighting and even the casino's trademark minarets.

Ane of the builders was Marty Rosenberg, vice president of Atlantic Plate Glass Co., who said he was owed about $one.five million for work at the Taj Mahal. When information technology became clear Trump was not going to pay in total, Rosenberg took on an informal leadership role, representing virtually 100 to 150 contractors in negotiations with Trump.

Rosenberg'southward mission: with Trump offering as little equally 30 cents on the dollar to some of the contractors, Rosenberg wanted to get as much as he could for the pocket-size businesses, almost staffed by younger tradesmen with pocket-size incomes and often families to support.

"Yes, there were a lot of other companies," he said of those Trump left waiting to get paid. "Yes, some did not survive."

Rosenberg said his company was among the lucky ones. He had to delay paying his own suppliers to the projection. The negotiations led to him eventually getting about lxx cents on the dollar for his piece of work, and he was able to pay all of his suppliers in full.

The analysis of Trump lawsuits likewise plant that professionals, such as existent estate agents and lawyers, say he's refused to pay them sizable sums of money. Those cases show that even some loyal employees, those selling his properties and fighting for him in courtroom, are only with him until they're not.

Real estate banker Rana Williams, who said she had sold hundreds of millions of dollars in Manhattan property for Trump International Realty over more than than ii decades with the company, sued in 2013 alleging Trump shorted her $735,212 in commissions on deals she brokered from 2009 to 2012. Williams, who managed as many every bit 16 other sales agents for Trump, said the tycoon and his senior deputies decided to pay her less than her contracted commission rate "based on nil more than whimsy."

Trump and Williams settled their instance in 2015, and the terms of the deal are confidential, as is the case in dozens of other settlements between plaintiffs and Trump companies.

Nevertheless, Williams' 2014 degradation in the case is not sealed. In her sworn testimony, Williams said the 2013 commission shortage wasn't the only one, and neither was she the only person who didn't get fully paid. "In that location were instances where a sizable committee would come in and we would be waiting for payment and it wouldn't come," she testified. "That was both for myself and for some of the agents."

Some other broker, Jennifer McGovern, filed a similar lawsuit against the at present-defunct Trump Mortgage LLC in 2007, citing a six-figure commission on real-estate sales that she said went unpaid. A judge issued a judgment ordering Trump Mortgage to pay McGovern $298,274.

Even Trump's own attorneys, on several occasions, sued him over claims of unpaid bills.

I constabulary firm that fought contractors over payments and other bug for Trump — New York Urban center's Morrison Cohen LLP — ended upwards on the other side of a similar boxing with the mogul in 2008. Trump didn't similar that its lawyers were using his name in press releases touting its representation of Trump in a lawsuit against a construction contractor that Trump claimed overcharged him for work on a luxury golf club.

As Trump at present turned his ire on his one-time lawyers, however, Morrison Cohen counter-sued. In court records, the police firm alleged Trump didn't pay nearly a one-half million dollars in legal fees. Trump and his ex-lawyers settled their disputes out of courtroom, confidentially, in 2009.

In 2012, Virginia-based law firm Cook, Heyward, Lee, Hopper & Feehan filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization for $94,511 for legal fees and costs. The case was eventually settled out of courtroom. Just as the case unfolded, courtroom records detail how Trump's senior deputies attacked the attorneys' quality of work in the local and trade printing, leading the business firm to make claims of defamation that a approximate ultimately rejected on free oral communication grounds.

Trump claims in his presidential personal financial disclosure to be worth $10 billion as a upshot of his concern acumen. Many of the small contractors and individuals who weren't paid by him oasis't been as fortunate.

Edward Friel, of the Philadelphia cabinetry company allegedly shortchanged for the casino piece of work, hired a lawyer to sue for the coin, said his son, Paul Friel. But the chaser brash him that the Trumps would drag the instance out in courtroom and legal fees would exceed what they'd recover.

The unpaid nib took a huge chunk out of the lesser line of the visitor that Edward ran to accept intendance of his wife and v kids. "The worst office wasn't dealing with the Trumps," Paul Friel said. After standing up to Trump, Friel said the family struggled to get other casino work in Atlantic Metropolis. "There'due south tons of these stories out in that location," he said.

The Edward J. Friel Co. filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 5, 1989.

Says the founder'due south grandson: "Trump hits everybody."

Contributing: John Kelly, Nick Penzenstadler, Karen Yi, David McKay Wilson

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

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