KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Clayton Homes Inc., one of the country's largest manufactured home companies and a subsidiary of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway, has been accused of forging Texas property owners' signatures to obtain their land.

Fifteen lawsuits involving 29 defendants were filed Friday with district courts in Duval and Jim Wells counties near Corpus Christi.

Ten lawsuits filed in May by other Texas property owners made similar claims against Maryville, Tenn.-based Clayton, which makes, sells and finances mobile homes and operates communities for them in more than 30 states. Omaha investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought in 2003 for $1.7 billion

The latest lawsuits name the company and Clayton associates Benjamin Joseph Frazier, Christopher Lance Kimball and Robin Moore as defendants.

The lawsuits allege that the defendants forged the plaintiffs' signatures on deed and lien documents that put up their land as security to finance mobile home purchases. When the plaintiffs couldn't make the loan payments, the defendants took their land, the suit says.

"We have zero tolerance for any misrepresentation to customers, suppliers or anyone we deal with," Clayton Homes President and CEO Kevin Clayton said Tuesday. "This is isolated to one location in one market and we see nothing in this case that suggests otherwise."

Clayton Homes "has made no overt effort to defraud anyone at anytime," Clayton spokesman Chris Nicely said.

"Our investigation has shown the forgeries of deeds of trust and documents related to land has occurred in almost every state where Clayton Homes sells trailers," countered David Rumley, a Corpus Christi lawyer.

Rumley said Clayton used "land-in-lieu-of" transactions for financing homes by people who aren't in a position to finance.

One case involved a woman who had both arms amputated, lived in a nursing home and was unable to sign any documents, he said. Another woman was in surgery the day the document shows she signed.

"When you have a big company coming in and stealing land from poor Hispanic families who have had the land in their families for years, we're expecting verdicts of over $100 million in each case," Rumley said.