Updates on ASHI and EBPHI Lawsuits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

InterNACHI® Prevails in Ongoing Court Case
Against EBPHI

BOULDER, Colo. (May 14, 2020) – EBPHI loses in court again.

In 2017, the EBPHI (Examination Board of Professional Home Inspectors) filed a federal lawsuit against InterNACHI® and its founder Nick Gromicko, suing him personally in his hometown for publicly criticizing their NHIE.  

InterNACHI® and Gromicko are vigorously defending themselves on the grounds that Gromicko’s stated opinions about the NHIE were both accurate and constitutionally protected speech.   It is particularly telling that an article in the January 2018 issue of the ASHI Reporter revealed that even EBPHI’s leadership realized the NHIE had become overbroad by testing on multiple ancillary services that are outside the scope of the job of a home inspector.  This was later confirmed when EBPHI's president admitted under oath that they knew the exam suffered from "scope creep." Nevertheless, EBPHI waited until January 2019 to revise its test, which confirmed that Gromicko was right – the NHIE was testing on topics outside the scope of the job of a home inspector, possibly destroying careers and lives, for almost a decade.     

Gromicko countersued EBPHI and has been fighting to get a copy of the NHIE's pool of questions and answers so that he and his subject-matter experts can go through the exam and show that it was flawed, and that the EBPHI was improperly failing and recharging inspectors who needed to pass the exam when licensing was adopted in their state.  The EBPHI has, of course, been fighting Gromicko's years-long attempt to get access to the NHIE's exam question pool.  The issue as to whether Gromicko should have access to the exam has been battled in court for three years.

Today, we are pleased to announce that the court finally ruled in favor of Gromicko and has ordered the EBPHI to give him access to the NHIE.

U.S. District Court - District of Colorado

District of Colorado

Notice of Electronic Filing

The following transaction was entered on May 14, 2020 at 8:43 a.m. MDT and filed on May 14, 2020.

Docket Text:

ORDER granting in part and denying in part [62] Motion to Compel. On review of the motion and response, the Court orders plaintiff to produce the requested documents as used in the years 2015 and 2016. On review of the complaint, it appears to the Court that the allegedly defamatory statements were made regarding tests used in 2016 or before. The documents are to be used only for purposes of this case. They may be seen by the defendant's principal, the defendant's counsel, and the defendant's expert. They may not be copied, used, or distributed outside that group or for any other purpose than defending this lawsuit. At the conclusion of the lawsuit, the documents must be returned or destroyed at plaintiff's option, with no copies retained by defendant. 

By Judge R. Brooke Jackson on 5/14/2020. (rbjsec.)

###

With 25,000 members, InterNACHI® is the world's largest association of home inspectors, and the only home inspector training organization that's accredited by the U.S. Dept. of Education.  InterNACHI® offers thousands of dollars' worth of free member benefits, as well as peer and mentor support, all to help its members succeed.  Find out more at www.nachi.org.

InterNACHI® countersues ASHI.