Tommy Balzer has filed a series of lawsuits against more than a dozen people in Powhatan Circuit Court. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
A feud dividing a well-known local family has snowballed into small-town gossip, a land dispute and multiple lawsuits with potentially tens of millions of dollars at stake.
Tommy Balzer, namesake and former executive at longtime local civil engineering firm Balzer and Associates, is waging legal war against two of his brothers, his brother-in-law and several other notable names from the Richmond business scene as he attempts to regain his share of a valuable chunk of real estate and, if possible, clear his name.
The latest chapter in the saga is a lawsuit that Balzer, 53, filed Nov. 5 in Powhatan County Circuit Court. It claims that while he was battling personal and financial issues, his co-owners of a massive piece of riverfront property in Powhatan secretly and wrongfully edged him out of his stake. Balzer is seeking up to $27.5 million in total damages in the case.
It’s one of at least three lawsuits that Balzer has filed in Powhatan over the last 12 months against family members, business associates and friends that read like a soap opera driven by themes of money, brotherly grudges and lost favor in a tight-knit rural section of the Richmond region.
The main defendants in the Nov. 5 case are F. Ashby Stinson, Donald Balzer Jr., Richard L. Thalhimer, Robert W. Thomas, James W. McAden, William A. Phillips Jr., Russell M. Evans II, Randy S. Hairfield and Robert Craig Balzer.
Donald and Craig Balzer are Tommy’s brothers, whose father, Donald Sr., founded the company in 1967. Donald Jr. is a former president of Balzer and Associates who retired in 2005. Craig, who lives in Roanoke, is the company’s chairman. McAden, a brother-in-law to the Balzers, is the company’s president.
Tommy, according to court records, was allegedly booted out of the business in 2012.
Also named as defendants in the case are several corporate entities including Shady Grove Tract LC, which now owns the land in question.
The property sits off Rocky Ford Road and consists of 711 acres along the Appomattox River that the men planned to eventually subdivide for future development with up to 52 homes on large plots with private roads.
The property had been owned by Rocky Ford LLC, of which all the men on both sides of the case owned a piece. That was until late 2013, when the defendants, with the exception of Evans, allegedly created Shady Grove as a vehicle to push Tommy Balzer out of his one-tenth stake in the Rocky Ford land, the lawsuit claims.
While they don’t explicitly spell out why the men turned on one another, court records state the disputes between Tommy Balzer and the defendants arose in November 2012, around the time he was pushed out of Balzer and Associates. Tommy was in the midst of personal issues, including financial problems that the case claims were a result of the recession. Indeed, Tommy twice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013, showing millions of dollars in debt owed to dozens of creditors. But his efforts at bankruptcy protection were both dismissed for lack of filing the necessary documents.
According to this case and another suit, Tommy was falsely accused of embezzling money from two unrelated ventures. An investigation by the Chesterfield County Police Department followed, court records state, but no charges were ever filed. However rumors of the accusations, and other gossip about Tommy, allegedly spread around Powhatan and elsewhere, the lawsuits claim.
Ultimately in late 2013, the Rocky Ford group allegedly voted, without Tommy Balzer’s knowledge, to transfer the land to Shady Grove. The sale went through in March 2014 for $972,000, which amounted to a nominal sum on paper, the lawsuit claims.
“There was no business purpose to the Shady Grove transaction,” the lawsuit alleges. “Rather, the defendants’ sole purpose of the transaction was to wipe out Tommy’s equity in Rocky Ford and seize the entire Rocky Ford property for themselves.”
The lawsuit pegs Tommy’s one-tenth claim of the land at $600,000, which would put the total value at about $6 million. The county most recently assessed the value at around $2 million.
The suit claims that the Shady Grove group was able to hide the details of the sale of the land from Tommy Balzer, until he eventually got access to records earlier this year.
That led to a suit filed in Roanoke that was dismissed, and then the Nov. 5 suit, which Tommy Balzer filed on behalf of Rocky Ford LLC. It alleges 12 counts including various forms of fraud and conspiracy. One count is business conspiracy, which under Virginia law allows for triple damages if the plaintiff is victorious. That, along with the other counts, pushes the demanded total damages up to potentially $27.5 million.
Tommy Balzer is represented by Charlottesville attorney Steven Biss, who declined comment on the case.
Balzer also asks that the defendants be expelled from Rocky Ford and that the transfer of the land should be voided and deeded back to Rocky Ford.
Twelve of the 13 main defendants in the case are represented by LeClairRyan attorney Kevin Otto. They have not yet filed their response.
“My clients dispute the allegations in the Rocky Ford complaint,” Otto said last week.
Evans is represented by attorney Charles Gavin of law firm Cauthorn, Deskevich & Gavin. Gavin did not return a request for comment.
Tommy Balzer further argues that the property should be transferred back to Rocky Ford free and clear of a lien held by C&F Bank, one of two local banks that have been entangled in the various lawsuits he has filed.
Based in West Point, C&F inherited the issue through its acquisition of the former Powhatan-based Central Virginia Bank, which did business with the men involved in the lawsuit and made a loan on the Rocky Ford property. CVB, the lawsuit alleges, reloaned the same money on the same land to Shady Grove, in what it calls a “takeout loan.”
C&F’s chief executive Larry Dillon said in an email last week the bank was not aware of being named as a defendant in the case.
There are two other pending lawsuits that Balzer has filed in Powhatan, both alleging defamation, among other counts, against family members and others in the community.
One is a defamation suit filed in October 2014 against his brothers Donald and Craig, their sister Jamie, and McAden. Midlothian-based Village Bank was also a defendant initially but has since been dismissed from the allegations.
It claims that after Donald Balzer and McAden learned of Tommy Balzer’s financial problems, “they devised a scheme to push Tommy into financial ruin, so as to be able to take control of Tommy’s and his family’s valuable real estate holdings.”
“The scheme included a malicious campaign (to) defame Tommy and destroy his will,” the suit claims.
The defamation suit over the last year has been picked apart by Otto and the judge, forcing certain claims to be eliminated.
That case seeks total damages of $10 million. It is scheduled for trial in April.
As to the defamation case, Otto said: “Every claim in that case is denied by my clients and its being aggressively defended.
“We’re confident that if it were to get to trial, we will prevail,” he said.
Tommy Balzer has filed a series of lawsuits against more than a dozen people in Powhatan Circuit Court. Photo by Michael Schwartz.
A feud dividing a well-known local family has snowballed into small-town gossip, a land dispute and multiple lawsuits with potentially tens of millions of dollars at stake.
Tommy Balzer, namesake and former executive at longtime local civil engineering firm Balzer and Associates, is waging legal war against two of his brothers, his brother-in-law and several other notable names from the Richmond business scene as he attempts to regain his share of a valuable chunk of real estate and, if possible, clear his name.
The latest chapter in the saga is a lawsuit that Balzer, 53, filed Nov. 5 in Powhatan County Circuit Court. It claims that while he was battling personal and financial issues, his co-owners of a massive piece of riverfront property in Powhatan secretly and wrongfully edged him out of his stake. Balzer is seeking up to $27.5 million in total damages in the case.
It’s one of at least three lawsuits that Balzer has filed in Powhatan over the last 12 months against family members, business associates and friends that read like a soap opera driven by themes of money, brotherly grudges and lost favor in a tight-knit rural section of the Richmond region.
The main defendants in the Nov. 5 case are F. Ashby Stinson, Donald Balzer Jr., Richard L. Thalhimer, Robert W. Thomas, James W. McAden, William A. Phillips Jr., Russell M. Evans II, Randy S. Hairfield and Robert Craig Balzer.
Donald and Craig Balzer are Tommy’s brothers, whose father, Donald Sr., founded the company in 1967. Donald Jr. is a former president of Balzer and Associates who retired in 2005. Craig, who lives in Roanoke, is the company’s chairman. McAden, a brother-in-law to the Balzers, is the company’s president.
Tommy, according to court records, was allegedly booted out of the business in 2012.
Also named as defendants in the case are several corporate entities including Shady Grove Tract LC, which now owns the land in question.
The property sits off Rocky Ford Road and consists of 711 acres along the Appomattox River that the men planned to eventually subdivide for future development with up to 52 homes on large plots with private roads.
The property had been owned by Rocky Ford LLC, of which all the men on both sides of the case owned a piece. That was until late 2013, when the defendants, with the exception of Evans, allegedly created Shady Grove as a vehicle to push Tommy Balzer out of his one-tenth stake in the Rocky Ford land, the lawsuit claims.
While they don’t explicitly spell out why the men turned on one another, court records state the disputes between Tommy Balzer and the defendants arose in November 2012, around the time he was pushed out of Balzer and Associates. Tommy was in the midst of personal issues, including financial problems that the case claims were a result of the recession. Indeed, Tommy twice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013, showing millions of dollars in debt owed to dozens of creditors. But his efforts at bankruptcy protection were both dismissed for lack of filing the necessary documents.
According to this case and another suit, Tommy was falsely accused of embezzling money from two unrelated ventures. An investigation by the Chesterfield County Police Department followed, court records state, but no charges were ever filed. However rumors of the accusations, and other gossip about Tommy, allegedly spread around Powhatan and elsewhere, the lawsuits claim.
Ultimately in late 2013, the Rocky Ford group allegedly voted, without Tommy Balzer’s knowledge, to transfer the land to Shady Grove. The sale went through in March 2014 for $972,000, which amounted to a nominal sum on paper, the lawsuit claims.
“There was no business purpose to the Shady Grove transaction,” the lawsuit alleges. “Rather, the defendants’ sole purpose of the transaction was to wipe out Tommy’s equity in Rocky Ford and seize the entire Rocky Ford property for themselves.”
The lawsuit pegs Tommy’s one-tenth claim of the land at $600,000, which would put the total value at about $6 million. The county most recently assessed the value at around $2 million.
The suit claims that the Shady Grove group was able to hide the details of the sale of the land from Tommy Balzer, until he eventually got access to records earlier this year.
That led to a suit filed in Roanoke that was dismissed, and then the Nov. 5 suit, which Tommy Balzer filed on behalf of Rocky Ford LLC. It alleges 12 counts including various forms of fraud and conspiracy. One count is business conspiracy, which under Virginia law allows for triple damages if the plaintiff is victorious. That, along with the other counts, pushes the demanded total damages up to potentially $27.5 million.
Tommy Balzer is represented by Charlottesville attorney Steven Biss, who declined comment on the case.
Balzer also asks that the defendants be expelled from Rocky Ford and that the transfer of the land should be voided and deeded back to Rocky Ford.
Twelve of the 13 main defendants in the case are represented by LeClairRyan attorney Kevin Otto. They have not yet filed their response.
“My clients dispute the allegations in the Rocky Ford complaint,” Otto said last week.
Evans is represented by attorney Charles Gavin of law firm Cauthorn, Deskevich & Gavin. Gavin did not return a request for comment.
Tommy Balzer further argues that the property should be transferred back to Rocky Ford free and clear of a lien held by C&F Bank, one of two local banks that have been entangled in the various lawsuits he has filed.
Based in West Point, C&F inherited the issue through its acquisition of the former Powhatan-based Central Virginia Bank, which did business with the men involved in the lawsuit and made a loan on the Rocky Ford property. CVB, the lawsuit alleges, reloaned the same money on the same land to Shady Grove, in what it calls a “takeout loan.”
C&F’s chief executive Larry Dillon said in an email last week the bank was not aware of being named as a defendant in the case.
There are two other pending lawsuits that Balzer has filed in Powhatan, both alleging defamation, among other counts, against family members and others in the community.
One is a defamation suit filed in October 2014 against his brothers Donald and Craig, their sister Jamie, and McAden. Midlothian-based Village Bank was also a defendant initially but has since been dismissed from the allegations.
It claims that after Donald Balzer and McAden learned of Tommy Balzer’s financial problems, “they devised a scheme to push Tommy into financial ruin, so as to be able to take control of Tommy’s and his family’s valuable real estate holdings.”
“The scheme included a malicious campaign (to) defame Tommy and destroy his will,” the suit claims.
The defamation suit over the last year has been picked apart by Otto and the judge, forcing certain claims to be eliminated.
That case seeks total damages of $10 million. It is scheduled for trial in April.
As to the defamation case, Otto said: “Every claim in that case is denied by my clients and its being aggressively defended.
“We’re confident that if it were to get to trial, we will prevail,” he said.
Is there a flow chart to accompany this story?
First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. Brian Ezzelle for making me pound my desk laughing.
Second, I had to scan this story several times to make sure I wasn’t a defendant and I don’t even know the guy. Half of RVA is going to be making visits to the local Powhatan Court house at this rate. Good job on the lawyers for they are the only ones who will be winning out of this lawsuit!