At this rate, Drayton McLane is going to make a full-time living out of suing subcontractors who were involved in the construction of Minute Maid Park.
McLane’s latest lawsuit, reported in this Houston Business Journal ($) article, seeks to recover the cost of repairing improper insulation of the pipe system that pumps chilled water for the air conditioning system at Minute Maid Park. Minute Maid Park is cooled by a chilled water system that pumps water through miles of conduits to create chilled air. Insulation is needed to prevent moisture buildup, corrosion, leaking and possible failure of the complex system.
However, as a result of the improper insulation, condensation has developed at various points in the system which, if left unrepaired, would eventually lead to even bigger problems. Inasmuch as retrofitting the pipe system with new insulation could require major infrastructure construction work at Minute Maid, the cost of the repair job could run as much as $70 million.
From the nature of the lawsuit, it appears reasonably clear that the Stros will not be left holding the bag for the repair bill and that it’s just a matter of the responsible parties figuring out how to allocate the cost of repair equitably among them. The four defendants are Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum Inc (HOK), M-E Engineers Inc., Way Engineering Co. Ltd., and Performance Contracting Inc. Inasmuch as the repair work needs to be done now, the Stros are proceeding with the repairs and will recover the financing costs related to the repair cost as additional damages in the lawsuit.
Longtime Houston plaintiffs’ lawyer Wayne Fisher, who is a lifelong friend of McLane, is representing the Stros in the litigation, just as he did in the litigation with Connecticut General over the disability policy on former Stros star, Jeff Bagwell. That lawsuit has since been settled.