The house at 500 Arroyo Chico in Boulder has 7,000 square feet of deck space. (YouTube)
An eccentric entrepreneur claims the couple who bought his 27,000-square-foot mansion in Boulder are “abusing the legal system” by suing him after the house made them sick.
Howard “Binx” Selby III created the word processor company NBI in a Boulder garage in the 1970s and later started PureCycle, which makes water purification systems. He is also an author and runs a nutrition clinic in Arizona with his wife, Linda Jade Fong.
Selby and Fong were sued in September by Nicholas and Tatiana Becker, who bought 500 Arroyo Chico in the foothills of Boulder from them. The former off-the-grid monastery includes a 30-car garage, 7,000-square-foot deck, solar panels, cistern and greenhouse.
The Beckers say that Selby and Fong led them to believe the drinking water there was pristine, but after they bought it for $2.5 million in September 2021, they got sick and their youngest child was born with cognitive delays. Water tests found arsenic and uranium, they say.
Compass and two of its employees are also being sued for allegedly deceiving the Beckers. They have denied doing anything to mislead the couple or harm their health.
Selby and Fong filed their response to the Beckers’ lawsuit Feb. 15. They not only denied doing anything wrong but also countersued the couple for breaching their purchase agreement.
“Abusing the legal system through artful pleading, the plaintiffs drafted claims that pretend…they somehow managed to buy the property without entering into a written contract,” it said.
This Buddhist monastery-turned-mansion was purchased for $2.5 million in 2021. (Boulder County)
In reality, the Beckers did sign a written contract, one that barred them from suing Selby and Fong — a provision that the Beckers are now violating, according to the countersuit.
“The plaintiffs represented that they understood and agreed…that this sale was intended to be ‘AS IS, WHERE IS, AND WITH ALL FAULTS,’” according to Selby and Fong.
They maintain that they didn’t lie about the water quality at 500 Arroyo Chico, where they lived continuously for two decades without a problem. They also rented a portion of the property to guests, who never reported negative health effects, according to their countersuit.
But if they did compliment the water and the Beckers relied on that, it is the Beckers who are in breach of the purchase agreement, Selby and Fong say, since their contract specified that the buyers “agreed they were not relying on any representations” in buying the home.
“Plaintiffs breached the contract by, among other things, failing to perform inspections and testing of the well and the water quality, allegedly relying on representations allegedly made by Mr. Selby and Ms. Fong, and by suing Mr. Selby and Ms. Fong,” the countersuit states.
A trial date has not yet been scheduled. All parties want a jury to decide the dispute.
Selby and Fong’s lawyers are Karen Wheeler and Angela Compton at Wheeler Law in Greenwood Village, plus John McHugh and Mallory Nordberg at Fennemore Craig in Denver.
The Beckers are represented by attorneys Eric Olson and Abigail Hinchcliff with the Denver firm Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff and Murray. They declined to comment.
The house at 500 Arroyo Chico in Boulder has 7,000 square feet of deck space. (YouTube)
An eccentric entrepreneur claims the couple who bought his 27,000-square-foot mansion in Boulder are “abusing the legal system” by suing him after the house made them sick.
Howard “Binx” Selby III created the word processor company NBI in a Boulder garage in the 1970s and later started PureCycle, which makes water purification systems. He is also an author and runs a nutrition clinic in Arizona with his wife, Linda Jade Fong.
Selby and Fong were sued in September by Nicholas and Tatiana Becker, who bought 500 Arroyo Chico in the foothills of Boulder from them. The former off-the-grid monastery includes a 30-car garage, 7,000-square-foot deck, solar panels, cistern and greenhouse.
The Beckers say that Selby and Fong led them to believe the drinking water there was pristine, but after they bought it for $2.5 million in September 2021, they got sick and their youngest child was born with cognitive delays. Water tests found arsenic and uranium, they say.
Compass and two of its employees are also being sued for allegedly deceiving the Beckers. They have denied doing anything to mislead the couple or harm their health.
Selby and Fong filed their response to the Beckers’ lawsuit Feb. 15. They not only denied doing anything wrong but also countersued the couple for breaching their purchase agreement.
“Abusing the legal system through artful pleading, the plaintiffs drafted claims that pretend…they somehow managed to buy the property without entering into a written contract,” it said.
This Buddhist monastery-turned-mansion was purchased for $2.5 million in 2021. (Boulder County)
In reality, the Beckers did sign a written contract, one that barred them from suing Selby and Fong — a provision that the Beckers are now violating, according to the countersuit.
“The plaintiffs represented that they understood and agreed…that this sale was intended to be ‘AS IS, WHERE IS, AND WITH ALL FAULTS,’” according to Selby and Fong.
They maintain that they didn’t lie about the water quality at 500 Arroyo Chico, where they lived continuously for two decades without a problem. They also rented a portion of the property to guests, who never reported negative health effects, according to their countersuit.
But if they did compliment the water and the Beckers relied on that, it is the Beckers who are in breach of the purchase agreement, Selby and Fong say, since their contract specified that the buyers “agreed they were not relying on any representations” in buying the home.
“Plaintiffs breached the contract by, among other things, failing to perform inspections and testing of the well and the water quality, allegedly relying on representations allegedly made by Mr. Selby and Ms. Fong, and by suing Mr. Selby and Ms. Fong,” the countersuit states.
A trial date has not yet been scheduled. All parties want a jury to decide the dispute.
Selby and Fong’s lawyers are Karen Wheeler and Angela Compton at Wheeler Law in Greenwood Village, plus John McHugh and Mallory Nordberg at Fennemore Craig in Denver.
The Beckers are represented by attorneys Eric Olson and Abigail Hinchcliff with the Denver firm Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff and Murray. They declined to comment.
