Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 43

TIMES COMING SUNDAY A look at Tampa Bay's biggest companies MM ST. PETERSBURG TIMES TIMES SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1995 5B 1 Walto Homes settles bwyeirs' swift BUSINESS DIGEST DOW DOLLAR YIELD 1 1 LXzll Q. The Tampa company admits no wrongdoing in the South Carolina suit, but the settlement will cost it $16-million. 30 INDUSTRIALS 4369.00 VS. JAPANESE YEN 30-YEAR U.S.

BOND 82.65 6.75 0.03 Knight-Rldder Newspapers Friday's Markets Jim Walter Homes engaged in deceptive acts constituting unfair trade practices. I The penalty under state law for, violating the mandate is forfeiture of all remaining finance charges, or interest, on the affected mortgage, twice the amount of any interest already paid and attorney fees. As part of the settlement agree-, ment, the judge approved $3-million in fees and expenses for the 12 lawyers representing several firms. "I can't tell you the number of times we were told we couldn't possibly be successful in this case," one of the' plaintiffs' attorneys, former state Con-; sumer Advocate Steve Hamm, said in arguing for the fees. The case, for which there is little legal precedent, was made even more complex by the fact that Jim Walter1 Homes was embroiled in bankruptcy reorganization.

senting the company, refused to comment on the settlement. Its terms prohibit all parties from discussing the deal. The case, which never made it to trial, stemmed from a 1993 lawsuit by Randy and Kathy Craps of Lexington County, S.C. They alleged that the partially built home they bought in 1992 for $42,045, with the intention of finishing themselves, wqs defective. The complaint, which cited warped floors and twisted wall studs and ceiling joists, said the company was unwilling to correct the problems, despite a warranty.

The Crapses' complaint later evolved into a class-action suit after it was discovered the couple never were asked for their preference in an attorney to represent them at their closing. State laws require a creditor to inform a buyer of that right. As a result, the lawsuit contended, based company admitted no liability in the federal case, stemming from a complaint that the company never told buyers they had their choice of lawyers when they closed on their homes. The agreement, approved by U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson during a hearing Thursday in Columbia, means monthly payments for 1,640 buyers with outstanding mortgages will be reduced 22 percent.

Payments on a $40,000 loan, for example, would be slashed by $94. In addition, the company will waive two monthly payments. About 300 buyers with no outstanding loan balance will receive a $1,000 cash payment. The settlement, which drew no objections from buyers, releases the company from all liability except construction defects. Brad Simpson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, and Daryl Williams, repre COLUMBIA, S.C.

Almost 2,000 South Carolinians who bought houses from Jim Walter Homes will see a 22 percent drop in their mortgages under a $16-million settlement approved this week. "This is probably the biggest consumer class action in South Carolina," University of South Carolina law professor John Freeman said. The settlement affects 1,934 people who bought homes between Dec. 27, 1989, and Nov. 18, 1994.

The Tampa- I iS I llll lllllOlill'JP Jul) mf 0 i iuH In computer era, libel law may be due for upgrade It will likely be up to the Supreme Court to decide how laws that predate PCs will be applied to on-line services such as Prodigy. At si" Associated Prow a Stocks tumble as economy weakens Stocks tumbled for the second day in a row Friday, as a raft of statistics this week showed the economy may be weakening substantially. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 43.23 points at 4,369.00, wiping out over two sessions a large portion of the 95 points it had gained earlier in the week. The blue-chip index twice was down more than 50 points during the day, prompting the New York Stock Exchange to restrict computerized trading. Nation GTE WORKERS TO GET AID.

The U.S. Labor Department is providing up to to assist 6,000 GTE Telephone Operations employees being laid off in 2 1 states, including Florida. Initially, $240,254 will be awarded to help GTE analyze the affected workers' needs and develop specific plans, the department said Friday. ALBERTSON'S PLANS EXPANSION. Albertson's, the nation's fourth-largest food retailer, plans a expansion to add 350 stores and remodel another 240, company officials said Friday.

Albertson's has 721 stores in 19 states and John Carley, company president, said the goal is to have 1,000 stores by 2000. Tampa BayState PARTNERSHIP NAMES EXEC. Peter Daks, president of GTE Florida, on Friday was named vice chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership. Daks replaces SunBank of Tampa Bay chief executive George Koehn, who is relocating to Orlando as chairman and CEO of SunBank, NA. The Tampa Bay Partnership is an regional economic development marketing organization representing Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Its chairman is Florida Progress Corp. chairman Jack Critchfield. Earnings WHAT A WORLD! INC. The St. Petersburg-based specialty retailer Friday reported a wider loss for the quarter that ended April 29.

The loss was $286,546, or 14 cents a share, compared with a loss of $125,493, or 6 cents a share, in the same quarter of 1994. Revenues increased 95 percent to $650,867, up from $333,493. Sales in stores open more than a year declined by 16 percent. Correction The hotel purchased by ADDCAM to be a new Holiday Inn in Clearwater is on the northeast side of the intersection of U.S. 19 and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in Clearwater.

A story Friday gave an incorrect location. Best Mortgage Rate The best 30-year fixed mortgage rate in the Tampa Bay area as reported Friday was 7.750 percent with 0 points offered by, among others, The Mortgage Link (813) 541-3390, AApex Mortgage Corp. (813) 684-1111, and The Lending Source (800) 920-0071. The rate is based on a $100,000 loan with a 5 to 10 percent down payment. For additional mortgage rate information, see the list of rates offered by some area institutions in today's Home Garden section.

The information is supplied by National Financial News Services in West Chester, Pa. El. AP Only 137 people attend GM's annual meeting, the lowest turnout since at least 1948. GIV3 ticks off shareholders The automaker gives speakers at its annual meeting 10 minutes at the mike and no more. Some are unhappy.

NEW YORK For years, the Prodigy on-line computer service has booted obscene messages off its bulletin boards and scrutinized subscriber speech. But in trying to uphold those standards, the service may have made itself more vulnerable to libel claims. A New York state judge ruled this week that Prodigy Services Co. was a publisher subject to the rules of libel in a case closely watched by the emerging electronic information industry. "Prodigy's conscious choice, to gain the benefits of editorial control, has opened it up to a greater liability than CompuServe and other computer networks that make no such choices," New York Supreme Court Judge Stuart L.

Ain wrote in his decision. The ruling came as part of a $200-million suit brought by Stratton Oakmont an investment bank that is angry about things that were said about it on a Prodigy bulletin board last fall. Prodigy plans to appeal and the issue is far from resolved. Throughout the arguments, Prodigy has said it is more like a bookstore, not responsible for the content on-line, rather than a book publisher. Both analogies are flawed, First Amendment lawyers say.

"All these ancient distinctions converge when you deal with on-line services," said Arthur Miller, a Harvard Law School professor. "You're dealing with the law of cyberspace it doesn't exist. We're fumbling here." It will likely be up to the Supreme Court to decide how laws concocted before computers existed will be applied. In the case before Judge Ain, Stratton Oakmont Inc. claims Prodigy is responsible for a subscriber's posting on its "Money Talk" bulletin board.

The posting said Stratton Oakmont had committed fraud while handling a company's initial public stock offering. Stratton Oakmont had named the subscriber in the suit, but later dropped him because another person using his account posted the message. Please see LIBEL 6B New York Times "I'm not done!" hollered one of the trio, George Sitka of Bristol, as his 10 minutes elapsed. "Well," said Smale, in a tone worthy of Dirty Harry, "yes, you are." Closely watched by other companies, GM is trying to discipline its historically raucous shareholder meetings, an often flammable blend of business forum, town meeting, and cage-match wrestling. In addition to limiting speaking and keeping the entire meeting to 2'2 hours, GM offered no plant tour to shareholders as it has in the past, and did not even display its vehicles in the Holiday Inn ballroom.

Pearce said GM spent only $150,000 on the meeting this year, compared with in 1994. But turnout this year, at 137 people, was the lowest since at least 1948. At the meeting, executives were peppered with queries on such matters as how GM was protecting shareholders from the Ebola virus, and whether Jack Kevorkian was damaging the image of the industry by helping people kill themselves in a van. (Smale said he thought the van was a Chrysler, although it was actually a Volkswagen.) WILMINGTON, Del. When the chairman of General Motors Corp.

muzzled a nun, any shareholder's hopes that GM might bend its new rules to limit their speaking time at its annual meeting surely began to melt away. When he did it again, all hopes must have vanished. "Again, sister, your minute is up," said the chairman, John Smale, in a weary, growling baritone. Like basketball shot clocks, two digital signs, in glaring red, ticked off the seconds racked up by each outspoken shareholder. Each was held to a total of 10 minutes, in 1- or 3-minute increments.

Those who overshot found themselves squawking into a dead microphone, as Smale briskly summoned the next speaker. Control of the mikes gave Smale clear victory Friday in what became a grudge match against a tag team comprising the three most belligerent, loquacious shareholders. Pinellas to step up tourism ads lodtfJaiA Joel n' Jerry's to pull out of Hillsborough tWH iUI Extra money from a higher tax on hotel beds will help pay for the campaign. I wsm slum '1 By MARK ALBRIGHT Times Steft Writer I 2f i Three stores are targeted for closure. The sale of pharmacy records is being negotiated.

1 By MARK ALBRIGHT Timet Stan Writer v. A PetersburgClearwater area. Because the tax increase will be imposed in the middle of the county government's fiscal year, the Tourist Development Council is expecting to get only $750,000 of the additional tax money in 1996. The extra cash will push Pinellas County's tax support for tourist industry marketing from to over $6-million a year. It appears now that a little more than half of that will be spent to buy advertising.

The County Commission put off imposing the) higher tax until January at the tourist industry's request. The tax will increase hotel bills by a few dollars a night. So by postponing the effective date, outstand ing contracts with tour operators who book thousands of hotel rooms months in advance will not have to be renegotiated. On Friday, the tourist council committee also decided to recommend that the county's current advertising agency, Earle Palmer Brown of St. Pei tersburg, get the contract for three more years even though two other agencies bid to do the job for less4 Committee members said the other agencies did not seem to grasp the scope of the account The competing agencies were not asked to make a full-blown sales presentation.

The County Commission will have the ultimate choice. 1 ones in Pinellas County can be properly stocked. Then we can build on our six remaining stores" in Pinellas, he said. The stores to be closed are at 4978 Busch 11780 Dale Mabry Highway, and 535 Brandon Blvd. E.

HBA inherited two of the Hillsborough stores, both of which had been losing money for several years. The new owners hoped to bolster their Hillsborough business by expanding their admittedly small presence there, but the plan fizzled when construction delays and other technical problems plagued business at the new store in Temple Terrace. The Brandon store has been hurt by road work on Brandon Boulevard that will continue for several more months, Gaddis said. The company is negotiating the sale of its pharmacy customer files at all three Hillsborough County stores. CLEARWATER Flush with new money from a higher tax on hotel beds in Pinellas County, tourist industry leaders Friday began laying plans to substantially beef up advertising efforts for more vacationers.

A Tourist Development Council subcommittee began planning how the new money will be spent to augment a new advertising campaign being drafted for next winter. The campaign will be similar to what has been used for the past three years. But a new creative look, a new slogan and a broader message are in the works. The general concept endorsed by the committee Friday continued to base Pinellas' advertising on the area's beaches and their proximity to Walt Disney World. But layered over that will be an attempt to show that the region has enough recreational, cultural and spectator sporting activities to stand on its own.

The County Commission last month voted to increase the additional sales tax on hotel bills from 3 to 4 percent effective Jan. 1, to help bring the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg up to Major League Baseball standards. But commissioners cut the tourist industry in for an extra $l-million a year, too, for promoting the St. Joel n' Jerry's, the local discount drug chain, has decided to pull out of Hillsborough County.

The company will close its recently opened Temple Terrace store before the end of next week, then stage liquidation sales at its stores in Carrollwood and Brandon over the next two months. "This is going to help us better serve our strong customer base in Pinellas County," said Jerry Gad-dis, president of Pinellas Park-based HBA Distributors the company that acquired Joel n' Jerry's last year. "We can spread out limited resources over fewer stores so the Times files Jerry Gaddis, in front of a Clearwater store, says the closings in Hillsborough will free resources to help the company improve its stores in Pinellas..