Before the thirty-day time limit expired for Terminix to bring the property into compliance as instructed by the Structural Pest Control Board, Mr. Peterson telephoned.  He seemed quite anxious to take action against Terminix's license and to help us.  He asked why our attorney had not contacted him yet and stated that if we wanted the details of prior complaints against Terminix to call the Structural Pest Control Board and ask for "the complaint history of PR 801."  He stated that all the Terminix branches throughout the state operate under one license; that Terminix was already on probation for two prior cases similar to ours, therefore, this case would automatically be forwarded to the California Attorney General’s Office; and that Terminix would probably lose their license to operate in the entire state of California.

At Mr. Peterson's suggestion, I telephoned the Structural Pest Control Board and asked for the complaint history for “PR 801.”  I was told that in the prior two years, Terminix had 51 settled complaints, 61 dismissed complaints, four violations, and one violation was in Administration for further action; that there were two separate accusations that resulted in probation for them -- both for failure to report damages; and:

If we have any kind of complaints while they’re on probation, it automatically goes to the Attorney General’s Office, and we take action against their license.

In response to a letter from our attorney, the Structural Pest Control Board provided a list of complaints against Terminix, stating: "This list includes all complaints within the Statute of Limitations filed with the Board within a two year period."

I did not see this list until a year after the trial when our attorney relinquished all the documents pertaining to our case.  Perplexingly, our complaint, Case Number 93-922, filed 05-17-93, was NOT on the Structural Pest Control Board’s list of “all complaints within the Statute of Limitations filed with the Board within a two year period.”

If this was a list of “all complaints...,” WHY wasn’t our complaint included on the list?  How many other complaints were not included on “this list of all complaints”?

Mary Lynn Ferreira, the Registrar and Executive Secretary of the Structural Pest Control Board and a legal custodian of its records, provided several documents, including the following, pertaining to the license history and accusations against Terminix that resulted in their probation:

License History - Company Registration Certificate No. PR 801, contained the following information:

Terminix wasn’t on probation for two prior incidents -- they were on probation for THREE!  With 117 complaints filed against them while they were on probation, how many violations of probation does it take before action is taken against a licensee?