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Consumer Rights
Grande Law Offices principal Thomas Grande has advocated for consumer rights and protections for over thirty years. As executive director of Common Cause/Hawaii, Mr. Grande lobbied for open government and open records laws, as well as reforms to give consumers a greater say in government affairs.
More recently, Mr. Grande drafted and obtained passage of amendments to Hawaii's Consumer Protection Statute that allowed consumers and small businesses to sue for unfair methods of competition and allowed consumers to bring class action anti-trust cases directly against manufacturers and distributors.
Mr. Grande's legislative efforts substantially aided a later client who obtained a $38 million verdict against a large national company for using inside information to unfairly compete for the purchase of a business.
Mr. Grande has been active in both state and national consumer rights organizations and such as the Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii, National Consumer Law Center and the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
Homeowner Class Action Certified
Grande Law Offices and Wayson Wong have obtained certification of a construction defect class action on behalf of homeowners at the SummerHill Subdivision in Ewa, Hawaii. The case, which was filed in 2001, will go forward on behalf of more than 100 homeowners who were sold defective houses by Defendants Gentry Homes and Gentry Realty. The houses have a defective foam skit that allows ground termites to enter the homes undetected.
"This was a case that required tremendous perservence," said Thomas Grande. "The case was first dismissed because of an arbitration clause that we defeated in an important Hawai'i Supreme Court decision on homeowner arbitrations," Grande noted. "After our first certification hearing, Defendants were allowed to take nineteen depositions of potential class members. We are extremely pleased that the Court made what we believe was the best decision for the homeowners -- allow them to go foward as a class."
Grande commended co-counsel Wayson Wong, who handled all of the nineteen depositions. "Wayson displayed true dedication to this case. The SummerHill homeowners made the right choice when they asked him to represent them in the case," Grande noted.
To read a copy of the Supreme Court decision,
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