A dispute over copyrighted house design plans is back in court, this time pitting two previous defendants against each other.
More than four years ago, Austin-based Kipp Flores Architects LLC claimed that some single-family rental homes on the far Northwest Side were infringing on its copyright.
Kipp Flores finally settled a dispute over the design of 138 homes in the 250-home Pradera community with owner Pradera SFR and development manager American Housing Ventures Inc. on the eve of trial for a “substantial sum,” according to a court filing.
Pradera SFR, led by controlling shareholder Bristol Group Inc. of San Francisco, now claims that “gross negligence and wrongful conduct” by San Antonio-based American Housing Ventures caused the copyright infringement dispute and that it should indemnify Pradera SFR.
Pradera SFR claims more than 5 million $400,000 in damages from American Housing Ventures in a lawsuit filed Thursday in the 4th Division of Business Court in San Antonio. Pradera’s SFR figure includes more than $3 million in legal fees it incurred defending against Kipp Flores’ lawsuit and $1.5 million in Pradera’s diminished market value.
The Bexar Appraisal District assessed Pradera at $58.5 million.
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This isn’t the first time Pradera SFR has sued American Housing Ventures over the issue.
Pradera SFR 2024 filed a lawsuit in federal court in September seeking compensation for losses and damages it suffered as a result of the copyright dispute.
But U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez threw out the case in February, saying he lacked the legal authority to hear the case. The judge presided over the case of Kipp Flores v. Pradera SFR and American Housing Venture.
Bluebonnet Design
The claims in Pradera’s latest SFR lawsuit involve 138 three-bedroom, 2½-bathroom homes in Pradera that were dubbed the Bluebonnet design.
Pradera tells SFR it believes California architecture firm KTGY Group LLC has drawn up design plans for the home.
Discovery in the Kipp Flores lawsuit revealed that American Housing submitted Kipp Flores’ architectural plans to KTGY, Pradera tells SFR in her lawsuit. But Kipp Flores refused to authorize the use of his copyrighted plans for the Pradera project because the parties “could not agree on plan ownership or indemnification obligations,” the suit says.
American Ventures later admitted it should not have sent Kipp Flores’ plans to KTGY, Pradera tells SFR in its lawsuit.
American Housing’s conduct “posed an extremely high risk” to Pradera SFR because there was a “substantial likelihood that it would be subject to significant liability for copyright infringement,” the complaint added.
American Housing “ignored these risks” and “encouraged Pradera SFR to unknowingly take actions that allegedly infringe” Kipp Flores’ copyright.
Pradera says to SFR that it “vigorously defended” Kip Flores’ claims, but ultimately settled the lawsuit alleging “misconduct” by American Housing. Pradera SFR, as the owner of the Pradera project, “assumed most of the exposure and risk.” What she had to pay the architecture firm is not disclosed in the lawsuit against American Housing.
An “eleventh hour” claim
Pradera SFR claims that American Housing “waited until the eleventh hour on the eve of Zoom’s mediation trial” to demand that Pradera SFR agree to settle its potential claims with the development manager or it would “undercut” the Kipp Flores lawsuit settlement. American Housing and Pradera SFR then “hastily” reached a partial settlement two hours before the deadline, the latter said in its lawsuit.
American Housing released potential claims for damages, and Pradera and its affiliates released some claims but reserved other claims against the development manager, the suit added. The retained claims were those that Pradera believed would be covered by the insurance policy.
Pradera SFR now alleges that American Housing was “fraudulently induced” to include in the deferral of retained earnings after it discovered it had not received the insurance coverage required by the contract.
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In its federal lawsuit against American Housing, Pradera SFR says it discovered that the development manager failed to comply with a requirement that it maintain the $5 million. Insurer in 2024 in december stated in the letter that the contractual insurance payment under the policy is not covered and that Pradera SFR is not the named insured, the lawsuit states. Pradera SFR claims it should have been named as an additional insured under the policy.
“It appears that (American Housing) did not, at a minimum, obtain the required coverage from the insurer it mistakenly or fraudulently identified as the source of coverage in the unallocated claims portion of the settlement,” the complaint says.
Pradera SFR wants the insurance provision for the unsupportable damages portion of the parties’ settlement to be invalidated and the deal “reformed to remove reference to potential insurance.”
American Housing and James Ruiz, the attorney who represented it in Pradera SFR’s federal lawsuit, did not return emails Monday. a letter. Claudia Wilson Frost, a Houston attorney representing Pradera SFR, also did not respond to an email. a letter.
This article was originally published San Antonio single-family rental home owner-developer dispute.