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June 4, 2012

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Inspiration of movie ‘Rudy’ suing over home construction

By (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Home construction site

Motivational speaker Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger is suing a contractor over problems with a $5.3 million house he's building in Las Vegas.

Ruettiger, his wife, Cheryl Ruettiger, and their Henderson company, Rudy International Motivational Speaking Ltd., filed suit in Clark County District Court on Tuesday against Premier Building Group Inc. of Las Vegas.

The suit says the Ruettigers purchased land at 22 Olympia Hills Circle in the Southern Highlands community and in January 2006 hired Premier to build a home there with a maximum budget of $5.3 million.

Ruettiger, the inspiration for the 1993 Notre Dame football movie "Rudy," claims in the lawsuit that construction of the home has been marred by problems and that the contractor failed to complete and then abandoned the project.

A message for comment was left Wednesday with Premier Building Group.

The suit alleges Premier's license limit at the time the contract was signed was just $250,000, and that if the Ruettigers would have known that they would not have hired the company for the $5.3 million job.

Nevada State Contractors Board records indicate the company's current limit is $5 million.

The suit seeks damages that are unspecified but that are more than $50,000 — the amount of Premier's bond held by the Contractors Board.

The Contractors Board bond is required of all contractors. It ensures some funds are available to parties that may win claims against the contractor for failing to perform on a contract.

Ruettiger's attorneys said in the suit that the home project is over budget, alleged defects in the home need to be corrected and that the project still needs to be completed.

Also sued was Platte River Insurance Co., which issued the $50,000 Contractors Board bond.

Another defendant is Webster Bank, which is accused of mishandling construction loan disbursements and of mistakenly putting the construction loan into foreclosure twice — allegedly harming the plaintiffs' credit score.

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