Partial deal reached in lawsuit over Pajaro Valley High School construction

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Partial deal reached in lawsuit over Pajaro Valley High School

construction

San Mercury News - CA*

Donna - Sentinel Staff Writer

04/12/2008

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_8901650

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 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 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.

s Valley Unified School District found itself in a similar

situation, when it settled a lawsuit over flawed construction at

s 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.

Contact Donna at 763-4505 or djones@....