Article Launched: 04/12/2008
01:31:20 AM PDT
WATSONVILLE -- Pajaro
Valley Unified School District has settled part of a complicated and
long-running lawsuit over mold that appeared during the construction of Pajaro
Valley High School.
The terms of the
settlement with Salinas-based Dilbeck & Sons Inc. call into question how
much the district will recover of the nearly $5 million it spent to clean up
the mold and on related legal fees.
"I don't know if
we'll fully recoup all the money spent on remediation and attorneys, but the
alternative was just to take the over $2 million we spent on mold cleanup and
say, 'We're not going to hold anybody accountable,'" said interim
Superintendent Mary Anne Mays. "We did everything we knew to do to avoid
litigation. If there's an innocent party here, it's the school district. We
were not the designer. We were not the builder, and we needed to get a school
opened."
Construction crews
discovered mold in unfinished classroom buildings in March 2004. Both the
contractor and architect denied responsibility for the problem at the $48
million project, and the insurance company rejected the district's claim for
damages. Attempts at mediation failed. The week after the Harkins Slough Road
campus opened in August 2005, the district sued Dilbeck, WTC Architects Inc. of
Rancho Cucamonga and Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance Co. of Atlanta.
The
settlement with Dilbeck allows the district to keep $500,000 of the nearly $1
million in payments it withheld from the builder of the high school due to
disputes over mold and landscaping. The terms also call for the district to
release another $150,000 if it is able to recover at least $1.65 million from
other parties to the lawsuit, not including legal fees.
The terms also make it
clear that the settlement is a compromise, not an admission of fault by
Dilbeck. Lawyer Michael Sosnowski said his clients simply couldn't afford to
keep battling.
"Dilbeck is a
small company," he said. "They didn't have the $2.7 million in
taxpayer money to pay [legal costs]."
Neither the district
nor Dilbeck will be compensated for attorney fees under the settlement.
Scotts Valley Unified
School District found itself in a similar situation, when it settled a lawsuit
over flawed construction at Scotts Valley High School for $11 million in 2005.
Four years earlier, it had sued 30 contractors and designers for $30 million.
About half the $11 million settlement went to court costs and attorney fees,
and district officials said the remainder wasn't enough to cover all needed
repairs.
http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_8901650?nclick_check=1
####
Pure Air Control Services
800-422-7873
