SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY RICHARD NEWMAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Creditors’ hearings for the “Kitchen Cousins” personal bankruptcy cases have been pushed back to Sept. 30, and a new court filing in Newark shows that the legal wrangling may soon get more complicated.
John Colaneri of Ramsey, who appears on several HGTV home-improvement shows with his cousin Anthony Carrino of Jersey City, has asked for court approval to retain Joseph B. Fiorenzo of the Newark law firm Sills Cummis & Gross PC to lead his challenge to a large debt they allegedly owe to a Tenafly couple.
The couple, Robert and Peng Avery, had sued Colaneri and Carrino for allegedly botching the renovation of their Engle Street home.
Fiorenzo, who did not respond Friday to requests for comment, leads the law firm’s complex business litigation group.
Both entertainers list in their court filings $857,894 in unsecured debt owed to the Averys, resulting from an arbitration award that included the tripling of certain damages, which involved state consumer-fraud law violations. The award amount was what prompted the HGTV stars to file separate personal Chapter 11 filings on July 27, according to Wayne bankruptcy lawyer David L. Stevens, who is representing the cousins.
The renovation of the Averys’ home was not featured on any of the cousins’ cable TV shows, which include “Kitchen Cousins,” “Cousins Undercover” and “America’s Most Desperate Kitchens.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/kitchen-cousins-creditors-case-reset-1.1404297
