Pitt and his legal team have been trying to fend off having the actor face a deposition in relation to a class action lawsuit filed by victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The powerful and deadly storm slammed into Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29, 2005, leaving over 1,390 people dead in and around the New Orleans area.
To help displaced families who lost their homes due to the catastrophic storm, Pitt launched the Make It Right Foundation in 2007 with a goal to provide housing for people in need.
However, the foundation allegedly made a mess of its ambitious building project and is currently at the center of a class action lawsuit for over 106 homes, which were “deficiently constructed” with “defective products,” according to a lawsuit viewed by The U.S. Sun.
This month, the spotlight is more than ever on Pitt and his foundation following the release of Netflix’s three-part documentary Katrina: Come Hell and High Water.
‘HELL AND HIGH WATER’
Produced by Spike Lee, the documentary features details of suffering created by Pitt’s non-profit with first-hand accounts from broken-hearted homeowners.
Make It Right constructed 106 homes in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, which was decimated by Katrina in 2005, but the houses were not fit for purpose, despite Pitt’s best intentions when he launched the foundation.
In 2018, residents filed a suit against Pitt, the Make It Right Foundation, the non-profit’s directors, and all those connected to the construction of their substandard houses, which were falling apart and cost a combined $20 million to repair.
Ron Austin Law, attorneys representing the homeowners, are building up a colossal arsenal of evidence against Pitt and his co-defendants after painstaking forensic work
A letter sent to homeowners, which was viewed by The U.S. Sun, stated that the law firm was now armed with 150,000 pages of documents, including 30,000 critical financial records.
The acquisition of the records came after a three-year fight with Make It Right’s legal team, who contested and attempted to suppress handing over the trove of documents.
The letter added that “our architectural expert has submitted a comprehensive 6,000-page report, and our contractor experts have provided reports of similar magnitude.”
Moreover, it adds that an engineering expert has also “submitted a separate report,” which means 18,000 pages of reports filed with the New Orleans Parish district court.
NO STONE LEFT UNTURNED
The team of attorneys promised its clients that no stone would be left unturned and that “defendants and key witnesses” will be deposed after September.
The court recently ruled that all depositions related to the case have to be conducted by December 3 – that means the 61-year-old Hollywood A-lister could be quizzed at some time in October or November.
The U.S. Sun previously reported that Pitt fought tooth and nail to wriggle out of testifying, claiming it would clash with his hectic work schedule.
However, it now seems like Pitt is running out of options.
In an amended petition filed with the courts, the homeowners broadly allege a “breach of contract, warranty, negligence and fraud.”
The filing claims that the fraud accusations relate to “alleged statements, promises, and representations made by Make It Right and its employees/directors/officers, and fraud relating to financial activities that allegedly affected funds available to repair the homes.
There’s to be a trial next year to determine whether it can go forward as a class action lawsuit with the defendants’ legal team filing a motion for the fraud allegations to be discounted from the trial.
‘UNKEPT PROMISES’
It names Pitt in particular in the motion, claiming the actor was central to the alleged defrauding of the homeowners.
The court filing read, “The petition alleges ‘promises’ made by Brad Pitt at a 2007 community meeting, Plaintiffs allege these promises were ‘false.’
“Plaintiffs allege this reliance continued as late as 2016-2018.
“Plaintiffs further allege that Pitt made promises in ‘media interviews’ that induced justifiable reliance’.”
Among the list of complaints filed against Pitt’s foundation include defective designs, materials and construction, lack of repairs and water intrusion.
COMMUNITY IN DESPAIR
Kamaria Allen, a resident of a property built by Make It Right, had her home demolished in October 2020 after it sat empty for nine years due to what she claimed were “advanced mold rot caused by a chronic moisture condition.”
Allen told The U.S. Sun at the time that her parents lived in a property constructed by the non-profit that had “toxic mold and high CO2 levels.”
The horrid conditions allegedly caused her father Keith to stop working, while her mother Sharon became severely asthmatic, and her younger brother Khalid suffered memory loss and speech problems.
Allen, whose family pulled out of the class action suit as it has been dragging on for years, told The U.S. Sun in 2021, “Our blood is on their hands,” referring to Pitt and his foundation.
“They really just sat back and watched while multiple people lost their quality of life without attempting to make it right when they had all of the resources.
“They came in and destroyed a community that was already trying to come back from the dead.
“I don’t understand how Brad Pitt or anyone else affiliated with this organization can sleep at night. They are killing people.
“A lot of these people are very sick and are living a very poor quality of life for the rest of their lives.”
Some homeowners have taken out mortgages on properties in excess of $100,000, but the wrecked houses are now virtually worthless.
It’s not just the residents who are fed up, but the local authorities.
The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority filed a lawsuit against Make It Right Housing LLC in July to reclaim a plot of Make It Right land on Reynes St, which was never built upon.
The nonprofit had dumped shipping containers on the plot, which were filled with cabinets of sensitive homeowners’ information, and then left it abandoned for years.
Make It Right never repurposed the plot of land and 15 years after purchasing the territory, authorities are now seeking to reclaim it.
Another Make It Right plot, located on Jourdan Street, was seized by the City of New Orleans and foreclosed in 2024, selling for just $17,500.
NON-EXISTENT
Pitt’s non-profit was meant to be the savior for those who lost everything in the city’s most deprived and predominantly black area 20 years ago.
But the foundation made a mess of its ambitious project, which were “deficiently constructed” with “defective products,” according to the suit.
In the years after Katrina, Make It Right has been virtually non-existent in the area.
The foundation’s Lower Ninth offices closed its doors years ago, cut off its communication lines, and became invisible to residents.
It seemed the lawsuit had reached a conclusion in 2022 when the celeb-backed eco-charity Global Green agreed to pay a $20.5 million settlement on behalf of Make It Right and Pitt.
However, the pledge fell apart after it was discovered that Global Green never had the $20.5 million funds, and were banking on Pitt to be the figurehead of a major fundraising campaign for the settlement.
Pitt soon came forward and denied ever agreeing to Global Green’s claims.
A spokesperson for Pitt told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement in 2023, “Brad had supported Global Green many years ago, so when they approached his team stating ‘$20.5M in funding’ had been secured by their ‘generous donors,’ there was interest in considering their proposal.
“Global Green represented themselves as having already obtained these funds and planned to use them toward resolving all claims in the ongoing lawsuit for the benefit of the homeowners.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/15076985/brad-pitt-deposition-new-orleans-hurricane-katrina/
