Evening star., 1952-10-30
IHomeowners Suinu
Broyhil Deny Action
Is Politically Inspired

A spokesman for a group Of
Maryland homeowners suing M.
T. Broyhill & Sons, builders. today
denied the suit was politically
inspired.
Joel T. Broyhill. a member of
the construction firm, is Repub-
lican candidate for Congress from
the 10th district in Virginia. His
opponent, Edmund D. Campbell,
has been hammering away at Mr..
Broyhill's troubles with some pur-
chasers of his homes.
The spokesman for the group
was Alfred D. Collins, TIT Keokee
street, Langley Park. Md. He is
chairman of the Grievance Com
mittee of the Langley Park Home
owners Council.
Last Tuesday 80 families who
bought homes in the Langley Park
subdivision. developed by the Broy-
hill firm, filed a suit for $134, ,165
in damages. The homeowners
claimed the damages were due be-
cause Of shortcomings in their
houses.
Collins Statement.
Mr.. Collins said:
"Mr. Broyhill, instead Of ad-
dressing himself to the merits of
our long-Standing grievances, cries
that this suit was inspired by po-
Ilitical motives. The fact is that
Mr.. Campbell was never consulted
nor did we ever consult with any
one connected with Mr.. Campbell.
Our group pleaded with Mr..
Broyhill for over a year to make
our houses livable. This was long
before he announced his political
tions. :. We offered to sub
init our complaint for arbitration
to an impartial registered archi-
tect. but the Broyhills consistently
have refused our offer. The Broy-
hill firm has always refused to
cooperate unless permitted to act
both as judge and jury.
"At the urging of Mr.. Broyhill's
attorneys We delayed the filing of
our suit for months. On October Z
our group met and voted to
instruct our attorney to delay no
longer and to bring our case to
court"
Challenges Campbell.
Mr.. Broyhill, in a television
broadcast last night, challenged
Mr.. Campbell to show that any
person who bought a Broyhill
home did not get true value. He
cited one case where a house
bought for $4,000 was sold for
$19,500 by the owner.
Lindell F. Shrum of $500 North
Twenty-ninth street. Arlington,
said Mr.. Broyhill apparently was
referring to him. He said he
bought a house in Leeway Heights,
Arlington. for $4,000 and sold it
for $19,250-five years later.
Mr.. Shrum said Mr.. Broyhill
failed to tell what had been done
to the house during that time.
however. He cited a long list of
improvements which he said
pushed the value up to what it
brought when he sold it.
These improvements included
additional chimney, copper plumb
ing instead of galvanized. $50
truck loads of dirt to level off the
yard, recreation room installed in
basement, air conditioner, new
range and refrigerator, kitchen
cabinets. wall-to-wall carpeting,
steel Venetian blinds. shrubbery.
Anchor fence, stone walls around
parts of the lot and storm win
dowS.
Says BroyhiIl Erred.
Mr.. Shrum declared:
"Mr. Broyhill also erred when
he indicated in his television
speech that no complaints were
heard until recently about his
housing projects.
"The facts are that our COM
lplaints started in 1947 when we
purchased the houses, but weren't t
investigated by the Veterans Ad-
ministration until August, 1948,
four years ago, and long before
The was running for Congress-"