What are Tony Hartsgrove, Chad Barton, and Del-Air’s ‘Goliath’ legal team hiding? Free speech wins as this David is vindicated with anti-SLAPP victory

Published Jun. 26, 2025, 12:09 p.m. ET | Updated Jun. 26, 2025

Mallet of the judge, June 22, 2023. (Photo/Jernej Furman, Flickr)
Mallet of the judge, June 22, 2023. (Photo/Jernej Furman, Flickr)

ORLANDO, Fla. – When Florida small business owner Ross Johnston started asking public questions about the controversial Del-Air Heating and Air Conditioning ESOP wind-down, he never imagined the legal storm that would follow. But that’s exactly what happened.

Soon after launching a grassroots public awareness campaign in 2024, Johnston was hit with a barrage of litigation from one of Florida’s largest HVAC companies. The response was swift, aggressive, and unmistakable: stop talking—or be crushed.

Instead, Johnston fought back. And what followed was a stunning legal reversal and a warning shot to corporate bullies statewide.

In Fall 2024, Johnston began publicly questioning the terms of Del-Air’s sale to Astara Capital Partners. The company’s ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), which was meant to give workers ownership in the company, had been wound down under suspicious terms. Those concerns are the subject of active litigation in Ovalle v. Barton, Case No. 6:23-cv-551-CEM-RMN, a federal class action filed in the Middle District of Florida spearheaded by legal powerhouse Morgan & Morgan. Reading the formal complaint, Johnston wanted answers: Was the company undervalued? Were insiders enriched while employees were left behind?

Del-Air’s response? A defamation and injurious falsehood lawsuit filed by the company, its former board members, Tony Hartsgrove and Chad Barton, and even its former general counsel. The lawsuit seemed designed not to seek justice, but to silence criticism.

But Johnston didn’t fold. Backed by a statewide legal team from Lawson Huck Gonzalez and led by Orlando partner Michael C. Kelley, he invoked Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute—a law designed to protect citizens from retaliatory lawsuits that aim to silence free speech on matters of public concern.

And he won.

In April 2025, a Florida court ruled that Del-Air’s lawsuit against Johnston was indeed a textbook SLAPP, dismissing the claims against him and ordering the plaintiffs to pay his legal fees and costs.

“This lawsuit never should have been filed,” Kelley said. “Ross was shining a light on issues that matter to working-class Floridians. The Court confirmed he has a constitutionally protected right to speak out. His win stands as a sharp rebuke to corporate litigation used as a de facto gag order.”

Then, something even more telling happened.

On June 17, just days before the long-anticipated deposition of lead plaintiff Tony Hartsgrove, the plaintiffs abruptly dismissed the rest of their case, walking away from the lawsuit. No explanation. No warning. Just a clean retreat after months of scorched-earth litigation tactics: threatening Johnston’s wife with subpoenas, threatening to depose his own attorney, and issuing baseless cease-and-desist letters to squash his efforts to build a defense.

So why the sudden retreat?

Johnston believes it wasn’t about silencing one man—it was about hiding a much bigger problem. “Suddenly, when discovery was about to get uncomfortable, they ran,” said Johnston. “That tells me we were getting too close to the truth.”

In researching the case, Johnston’s legal team uncovered filings that suggest Hartsgrove wasn’t just involved in the Del-Air ESOP deal. Court filings in multiple states show a trail of red ink involving failed housing developments stretching from Texas to Louisiana. In one Texas case, Legacy Housing Corp. v. Rodwell, et al., Hartsgrove-controlled entities allegedly defaulted on $37 million in manufactured housing loans.

In a parallel Louisiana case, Legacy Housing Corp. v. Country Aire Homes of LA, LLC, et al., the same entities were accused of stiff-arming lenders on additional loans tied to mobile-home communities. While allegations are just that, these court documents suggest a walk-away exposure nearing $45 million.

While Johnston fought to defend free speech, Hartsgrove and the Del-Air plaintiffs fought to dodge discovery and deposition questions.

At the same time, a foreign power player has entered the stage. Japanese conglomerate Asahi Kasei Homes, through its U.S. subsidiary, Synergos Companies, has acquired ODC Construction, a major Florida subcontractor closely tied to the same production-builder ecosystem Del-Air serves, led by—you guessed it—Tony Hartsgrove. Asahi Kasei has already invested reportedly over $250 million into a U.S. contractor roll-up strategy aimed at dominating the horizontal integration model. Johnston believes a second sale of Del-Air is imminent.

Observers worry that the former Del-Air ESOP participants—already shortchanged once—could be left behind again, this time for good, if Del-Air is flipped to foreign owners at a full-market valuation in an off-market, backroom deal.

“If they sell it now at the true market value after acquiring it for a fraction of that,” Johnston asked, “what does that say about how they treated the workers in the first deal? It looks like the ESOP participants got the short end of the stick and may have been deliberately boxed out from the true value of their retirements. But the Morgan & Morgan attorneys can sort that one out.”

Now, with the aggressive lawfare behind him, Johnston is calling on Florida lawmakers, journalists, and regulators to investigate further. With the federal class action already pending in the Middle District of Florida, and a potential second Del-Air sale on the horizon, he says the public deserves answers, not intimidation. “The call is simple: follow the money. Shine a light. If nothing was done wrong, there should be nothing to hide. But here, when the lights came on, the other side ran. That tells you everything.”

“This was never about me,” Johnston said. “It was about hundreds of workers who trusted the system and were left with virtually nothing. If we don’t speak up for them, who will?”

Whether lawmakers or regulators step in remains to be seen. But when powerful players retreat the moment scrutiny begins, the public has every right to ask—What are they hiding?

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