BATON ROUGE  - The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that a lawsuit against D.R. Horton, a Texas-based home building company, will remain in state court instead of being litigated in arbitration court, according to The Advocate.

The lawsuit comes from Alicia and West Dixon, who have been seeking damages since 2022 after discovering a home they purchased from D.R. Horton in 2014 had a faulty HVAC system not built to withstand the summer humidity. 

"This ruling matters because thousands of Louisiana families are living in homes that are making them and their kids sick," Lance Unglesby, an attorney for the Dixon's, said. "These homes are unlivable. I've walked through hundreds of them. There's mold everywhere."

James Brown, an attorney representing D.R. Horton, claims that the dispute should be settled out of court due to the Dixons signing a sales contract that included a binding arbitration clause delegating any legal disputes to be settled under construction industry arbitration rules. 

A previous ruling determined that these contracts were not legally binding due to the Dixons being led to believe that the contracts were "merely to reserve the home" by sales agents, along with a $1,000 deposit. 

The Dixons testified that D.R. Horton representatives never mentioned the arbitration clauses or explained that the contract could prevent them from taking legal action. 

"For almost two decades, these homes are being built the same way, failing the same way, and the company building them has shown little regard for the people living in them," Unglesby said.

Residents of D.R. Horton have complained in the past, citing issues of water pressure, gas leaks and electrical problems due to poor installation.