The chairman of the Mathews County Board of Supervisors has filed a $2.95 million lawsuit against the county and two former employees.
Board chairman David Jones, his brother George Jones, and their business, JB Property Development LLC, in a suit filed last Thursday, are making a claim of defamation of character and malicious prosecution against the county, former planning and zoning director Thomas Jenkins, and former building official Jamie Wilks. Their monetary request is for $2,250,450 in compensatory damages and $350,000 per defendant in punitive damages. They have asked for a jury trial.
In the suit, the Jones brothers state that they had a strong reputation in the community and surrounding areas for quality craftsmanship, timely completion of work and overall good business character before the events that they describe in the document. While Jones is currently an elected member of the board of supervisors, the suit states that he was not on the board at the time of the alleged defamation or malicious prosecution.
The suit alleges that Jenkins called the bonding company used by the plaintiffs for their construction business on or about Feb. 27, 2019 and told the company that the plaintiffs were delinquent in their work and not meeting their scheduled timelines for completion. The suit claims further that Jenkins “knew this to be untrue” and that the information was disseminated by the defendant and others to other individuals.
Further, the suit alleges that Jenkins spoke ill of the plaintiffs to Mr. and Mrs. Christian (the owners of a home that was being elevated under grant funding obtained from FEMA through the county’s auspices) and alleged that the plaintiffs were the cause of the delays.
Beyond that, the suit claims that Jenkins made statements to other localities to inhibit the plaintiffs’ ability to work and provide bids, leading to “a direct loss of business and profits for plaintiffs.”
The plaintiffs’ allegations against Wilks include that he made complaints about JB Property Development to the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation involving lack of inspections and incomplete work on a church project. The plaintiffs claim that the work was properly performed according to code and that inspections were called, but that Wilks “either failed to perform the inspections or provide documentation of the inspections to plaintiffs.” They claim further that the complaints had no factual basis and were made maliciously in an attempt to harm the plaintiffs’ reputation, and that the only violations found were failure to obtain a building permit or application inspection. All other complaints were dismissed on March 22, 2022, according to the suit, with no violations shown.
The suit claims that not only did the business and David Jones lose business contacts and future business, but that George Jones lost friends and business contacts, “experienced extreme mental anguish,” and was so distraught that he was forced to sell his part of the business, retire from work, and move to Florida.
The plaintiffs are being represented by attorney Brenton J. Bohannon of West Point.
Previous lawsuits
The Jones brothers and their business filed a similar lawsuit against the county in February 2020, before Dave Jones was elected to the Mathews Board of Supervisors. That suit made similar claims, but it was only against Mathews County and former planning and zoning director Thomas Jenkins. At that time, they asked for compensatory damages of $1.2 million and punitive damages of $350,000.
In September 2020, Mathews County filed suit against JB Property Development for “an amount in excess of $20,243.79” after Jones demanded the final payment for an elevation project at 674 Morse Point Road in Peary (then-home of the Christians). The county said that the work on the project had been incomplete, that the county had to hire another contractor to complete it, and that the invoices from the other company totaled $41,700. At the time of the suit, $20,243.79 of the costs had been paid.
JB Property Development then filed a $22,112.46 counterclaim against the county for breach of contract, stating that there had been work delays beyond the company’s control and that all of the work was completed except work that neither the county nor the homeowners had authorized them to complete.
The company charged further that the county had approved an invoice for the completed work and had been paid by FEMA but did not deliver the check to JB. It also claimed that fraudulent paperwork was submitted to FEMA and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management regarding the job’s completion.
This allegation of fraud was the subject of an investigation by the Virginia State Police. No findings or resolution were ever made public.
The county at that time asked the court to dismiss JB’s suit with prejudice because the company didn’t comply with the mandatory process used in bringing a claim against a county and had not filed an appeal of the county’s disallowance of his claim for $22,112.46, thus barring him from bringing an action against the county.
None of the suits moved forward after Jones was elected to the board of supervisors. While running for the board in 2021, Jones stated that he would drop the defamation suit if he won, and the suit was withdrawn without prejudice on Oct. 25, 2022. A dismissal without prejudice means that the court did not decide on the merits of the case, and that the plaintiff may file the suit again.
A conference on the opposing 2020 suits is scheduled for July 19.