MYRTLE BEACH — Does one man’s dream home look too much like another beachfront house in the city?
A construction company contends it does and is suing the Myrtle Beach homeowner in federal court. The case could go to trial in the coming months.
The dispute centers on Nations Homes’ accusations that a former client, Peter Brady, took its copyrighted designs to a different company and built a nearly identical home, according to court documents. The builder alleges the doppelganger dwelling looks like the house of Nations Homes President Jeff Skelley. Both houses are on North Ocean Boulevard.
“The structure is virtually identical to the home Nations designed for Brady with many of the Skelley house features Nations incorporated into the Brady plan,” according to the company’s complaint, which was filed in October. “In addition, the color scheme on the (house’s exterior) appears to be the same as the Skelley home.”
Brady has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. According to his court filings, Brady started building his home five months before Nations registered its copyrights and never received any of the copyrighted work.
“Peter Brady had a dream to build his forever home and retirement residence for himself and his wife here in Myrtle Beach. He twice sought the assistance of Nations Homes to build that forever home for him. Nations Homes failed him both times,” Brady’s attorney, Reese Boyd, wrote in a prepared statement.
Boyd added, “Mr. Brady wanted nothing more than to be a good and satisfied, paying customer of Nations Homes. Nations Homes, in addition to failing to build Mr. Brady’s home, has now sued him because he asked another company to build the home. … We look forward to clearing his name in court.”
An attorney for Nations Homes could not be reached for comment.
Nations’ history with Brady started in 2019 when he asked the company to design and build a home for him in the Carolina Forest area just outside the city, according to court filings. Brady ultimately canceled that contract, attributing it to the company’s allegedly poor communication during the design process, his court filings stated.
Three years later, Brady contacted Nations again about designing and building a house along North Ocean Boulevard. The company alleges Brady wanted this house to look like Skelley’s, which is less than 10 minutes from where Brady chose to build.
Nations alleges Brady toured Skelley’s home and worked with company architects to create a custom design, which included copyrighted architectural work and technical drawings.
“Brady was expressly informed that any new design would not be a duplicate of the Skelley home and could not use the same exterior color scheme,” Nations Homes alleges in court filings. “Skelley agreed to provide Brady with a set of plans for the Skelley home as a basis for design, requesting that Brady review the plans and create a list of wants and needs for a home prior to meeting with the Nations Homes architect.”
But Brady alleges he never received any completed drawings or copyrighted work from the company.
Brady contends he ultimately canceled the contract because the parties could not agree on a price, but he asked Nations if he could purchase the work that the company had done for him. He maintains the company never told him he couldn’t use the work, while the company asserts the opposite is true.
Brady has subsequently filed a third-party complaint against Fastline Design, the Conway-based company he ultimately chose to design his home. If Nations’ copyright was infringed upon, Brady alleges Fastline Design should be held responsible, according to his legal filings.
Fastline Design has denied wrongdoing in court documents.
The case is expected to go to trial by February unless a settlement is reached, per court records.
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