Stuart Court comes up short

Eric Hill

Opinion Editor

Last week Jeff Luedecke stood outside Stuart Court Apartments at the corner of Shafer and Franklin streets holding a sign that read, “Stuart Court apartments owes me $25,000 and won’t pay.”

Luedecke said he renovated five apartments for Stuart Court and Chesterfield apartment buildings in 2008 but was never paid for services rendered. In December of 2008 he filed suit against Stuart Court for failure to pay their debts, according to Richmond City circuit court documents.

he documents state in February of 2009 the defendants failed to appear, answer or plead a case against Luedecke, resulting in a default judgment.
Luedecke said, Stuart Court has not paid Luedecke, despite it being more than a year since the court ruling.  Luedecke said he had hopes to use the money from this work in order to pay for his son’s tuition at VCU.  His son will be graduating from high school this spring.

The owner of the property that was renovated by Luedecke is listed as Luis Cazzo, a prominent acquisitions banker in Philadelphia. Cazzo was not available for comment.
Luedecke says he is simply asking he be paid for the work that he completed. He had to pay his workers on a credit card, and said he worries that he will not be able to receive his payments before his son is enrolled in college.

It cannot yet be said whether this is a purposeful attempt to deprive Luedecke of his livelihood, but regardless that is what has occurred, one can only hope he will receive the payment that he deserves, and his protests are heard. At a time when so many wonder how they will make ends meet, it is a sobering to see a man protest for the honest wage he was promised.