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Friday, September 01, 2006
Ind. Courts - "Contractor files lawsuit over courthouse work"
Kristin Miller of the Michigan City News-Dispatch reports:
LaPORTE - LaPorte County is being sued by the South Bend contractor doing $2.7 million in restoration work on the county courthouse in LaPorte.At Monday's LaPorte County Council meeting, Commissioners President Marlow Harmon told council members that Ziolkowski Construction Inc. filed a $498,000 lawsuit last week, claiming breach of contract for denying a change order.
“The lawsuit comes from damage they found after sounding,” Harmon said Wednesday morning. Sounding is a process where a worker lightly taps the courthouse's exterior stone with a small hammer to listen for hollow or sturdy sounds.
“It was damage that could not be seen with the naked eye,” said Harmon.
The breakdown in Ziolkowski's request includes $192,000 for the lower part of the building, $250,000 to repair damage in the upper tower and an additional $49,000 for extra scaffolding to get to the top.
Ziolkowski's has twice requested the extra money, but each time it was tabled by the Commission.
Contacted Wednesday, Ziolkowski executives would not comment about the case, but according to the lawsuit, Ziolkowski first performed a sounding process and then removed the mortar joints to determine the areas in which stone required patching.
“The extent of the damage was not known, and could not have been known, until Ziolkowski had erected scaffolding and performed the sounding process over the entire exterior of the building and removed the mortar joints,” the lawsuit said.
“No reasonable bidder would have erected the scaffolding and performed the sounding process over the entire exterior of the building prior to submitting a bid, nor was the erection of such scaffolding and sounding possible pre-bid.”
Lawyers who specialize in contract litigation will be brought in to assist county attorneys in the case, said Harmon, who added he is not surprised by the suit.
“When we turned it down, we felt a lawsuit would be filed,” he said. “They are contending that we violated the contract.”
While the litigation continues, Ziolkowski will continue to work on the courthouse.
“They said they would not sacrifice the quality of the building,” Harmon said. “As things play out, we'll find out whether or not we violated the contract.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 1, 2006 09:14 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts