California orphans get OK to sue 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'

Five orphans have gotten the go-ahead from California's Court of Appeals to sue ABC and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" for their eviction from their house.

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The five Higgins, ranging in age from 14 to 21, were featured on the reality show on Easter of last year showing the "Extreme Makeover" renovation of the house belonging to the Leomitis family, the New York Post reported Monday.

The two families had attended the same church and the five-member Leomitis family took the orphans in after their parents died.

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When the "Extreme Makeover" crew was finished, the small, cramped house had nine bedrooms -- one for each child in the home. However, shortly after the work was finished, the Leomitis family evicted the Higgins, the newspaper said.

ABC told the orphans it could not help them because the 24-page contract they signed did not give them any legal rights to the new home. The network also claimed the contract required them to take any complaints about the show to arbitration rather than through the court system.

In rejecting the arbitration clause in the contract, the appellate panel used words like "unconscionable" and "unenforceable," the Post said.