When a lawsuit seeks to undo 500 home sales worth $500,000 each, the stakes are enormous – in this case, $250 million.

That was the claim in Bernardo v. Taylor Morrison, a high-profile Florida class action accusing the homebuilder of failing to disclose that homes were located near a former World War II bombing range.

The Allegations

Plaintiffs argued that Taylor Morrison fraudulently failed to tell buyers there was a possibility of unexploded bombs under their houses. In reality, the homes were located about three miles away from a “formerly used defense site” outside Orlando – a site that was active before the city had even grown past 6,000 people.

The plaintiffs sought recission of all the purchase contracts. Had they succeeded, Taylor Morrison could have been forced to buy back every home – a catastrophic financial hit. The company had to set aside substantial reserves to prepare for the worst.

The Turning Point

Our strategy was straightforward: show the jury how little the alleged omission actually mattered to a reasonable buyer. We brought in an expert who testified that the added value of disclosing the site’s existence – on top of all the other disclosures already made – was approximately $100 per home.

The Result

We negotiated a highly favorable settlement of the $250 million case for $1,100 per home.

In fact, the settlement was so favorable that Taylor Morrison had to reverse its reserve and record millions in additional income. We turned the company’s defense of a potentially disastrous lawsuit into a huge percentage of the company’s net income for the year.

Why It Mattered

High-stakes litigation is about controlling the narrative and the math. Here, we turned a potentially company-crushing claim into a profitable outcome – proving that the right trial strategy can transform risk into opportunity.