Scrushy sale Monday

By Laura Johnson | Alex City Outlook

Published Thursday, November 5, 2009

Richard Scrushy’s multi-million dollar Lake Martin home will be sold to the highest bidder on the steps of the Tallapoosa County Courthouse at a Monday morning auction after a judge denied the former HealthSouth CEO’s late attempt to halt the transaction.

Scrushy, his wife Leslie, son-in-law Mike Plaia, and the plaintiff’s attorney met Thursday in a hearing held inside a Jefferson County courtroom. Both sides filed a number of motions but a motion filed by Scrushy’s attorneys, which would have blocked the sale of his assets including the Lake Martin home, was denied.

Initial reports indicated that his Lake Martin home was valued at about $5 million, but Sheriff Jimmy Abbett said tax records report the property is valued over $6 million and lawyers for the plaintiffs have said the value of the home was about $7 million.

“I think it is worth more than that,” attorney John Haley, who is representing the plaintiffs, said of initial estimations. “So I hope we get something close to ($7 million), or more.”

The Tallapoosa County properties up for sale include Scrushy’s Willow Point home, two adjoining plots of land and a nearby airplane hangar. The home, which includes an adjoining boathouse, will be sold together with the two plots of land while the hangar will be sold separately.

Sheriff Abbett was barred from showing the property in the same court order that permitted him to levy it, so potential buyers have had no access to the property since he took ownership. It is expected to bring several million dollars at auction.

This sale will mark the second such auction he has held to liquidate Scrushy’s Tallapoosa County property. In late October he sold several of Scrushy’s watercraft for $82,900 in a midday auction that lasted less than 15 minutes.

Abbett said that like that sale, Monday’s auction has garnered a lot of attention.

“As with the previous auction we have had a lot of interest and a lot of people calling,” Abbett said. “As for who is going to buy it and how much it’s going to bring, I can’t say.”

The income from the sales will pay a portion of the $2.87 billion in damages Scrushy was ordered to pay former HealthSouth CEO investors. Shareholders have been attempting to collect money from Scrushy since a Birmingham judge ordered him to pay the damages in June. The ruling came at the conclusion of a civil trial, in which former HealthSouth investors sued Scrushy over money they lost due to the fraud he was convicted of in 2005.

Potential bidders can begin registering for the sale Monday at 10 a.m. but the actual sale will not begin until 11 a.m. The buyers must make the purchase with cash or certified check.

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