Judge Tentatively Dismisses Nicolas Cage as Defendant in Venice Property Lawsuit

By Bill Hetherman, City News Service

A judge today tentatively dismissed Nicolas Cage and a general contractor as defendants Friday in a home-defect lawsuit involving a Venice property the Oscar-winning actor sold.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu said in his tentative ruling that lawyers for the plaintiffs waited too long to add Cage and Richard Nazarian as defendants in the case. The judge is scheduled to hear arguments today before issuing a final ruling.

The suit filed in May 2009 on behalf of filmmaker Bradley Lindsley by his family trust alleged Cage sold him a $3 million home without disclosing that it had water drainage problems. Lindsley also goes by the name Bradford Lindsley Schlei.

The Lindsley family trust originally sued the developer, the Lee Group, in May 2009. It later added Cage -- whose well-publicized real estate woes include sales of some of his other homes at drastically reduced prices -- as a defendant, as well as his former business manager, Samuel Levin, and Nazarian, who did handyman work for the ``Leaving Las Vegas'' star.

The suit alleged Cage, Levin and Nazarian did not reveal the water drainage problems. But attorneys for Cage and Nazarian, in separate motions to dismiss the fraud and negligent non-disclosure claims against their clients, said the plaintiffs knew of moisture problems with the home by 2004 and had three years to sue the actor and the general contractor.

Cage, 49, bought one of two single-family homes the Lee Group built adjacent to each other on Ocean Front Walk in November 2002, according to the complaint.

Other cross-complaints have been filed for and against various sub- contractors who worked on the home.

Lindsley alleges that some time after Cage moved into the home, the actor and his neighbor in the other Lee Group residence had problems with flooding and informed the developers.

But when Lindsley bought the house from Cage in May 2003, the actor did not tell him about the defects, according to the complaint.

When another man expressed interest in the property before Lindsley did and found out about the drainage problems, he canceled escrow, according to the suit.