*The five Higgins children who are suing ABC and “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” will have their case heard before a jury, thanks to a ruling from a California appeals court.
The five kids - ranging in age from 14 to 21 years old – were featured in a tear-jerker episode that ran on Easter Sunday 2005.
They were taken in by the Leomitis family, who had three children of their own. But the Leomitises evicted the kids soon after the renovations, which expanded the little house to nine bedrooms. Because the Higgins family did not own the house, they had no legal claim.
According to the Higgins lawsuit filed in August, ABC declined to help them and a 24-page contract the orphans signed required them to go to arbitration, which usually ends with the two parties splitting the difference. The court in California ruled the arbitration clause is "unconscionable" and "unenforceable" and that the case can go to trial.