Agent misrepresented Towaco home

For those following the Towaco case. From the Daily Record:

Jury: Nothing wrong with a house in Towaco

A Superior Court jury decided Tuesday that a Weichert Co. real estate agent misrepresented the location of a Montville home and the school the buyers' son might attend, but said that the act did not cause the family a measurable loss.

The jury agreed with homeowners Theodore and Frances Vagias that the failure of real estate agent Gabrielle Dingle to use the "T-word"-- Towaco --when describing the location of the home, constituted an "affirmative misrepresentation" under the Consumer Fraud Act.
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Dingle had testified that she was not aware until after the sale was completed that the home was in the Towaco section, and that she never specified which elementary school the child might attend.

The jury declined to rule that the misrepresentation they assigned to Dingle caused the Vagiases a substantive, measurable loss. If a loss had been determined, the Consumer Fraud Act calls for up to triple damages.

The Vagias' attorney Keith Harris told the jury in his closing that the loss suffered by the family was the 10 percent extra they paid for the home, as measured by a real estate appraiser he put on the stand, because they believed the home was in the Montville section of the township, and not Towaco. Harris placed the loss at $70,000.